Summers Women and Guys
by texaswookie
Summary: Dawn meets a guy after the Hellmouth blows and she, Buffy and Xander move to a new city with its own lovely problems but some problems stay the same like finding a regular guy to live with and some problems just require a slayers touch. . Batman crossover
1. ch 1

** Halt **

**Hold**

** Whoa **

** Stop **

**All chapters have been corrected for grammatical errors. **See I finally got me a beta a ton of thanks to SiN.

**Ch1**

Don't own nothing wish I did.

Dawn Summers smiled, she had finally started school in her new town. One that, while it had a definite demon presence, did not have the weird vibes of having a hell mouth, at least not an active one. That was the reason Buffy had given when they had first moved back to the U.S. after their eight month trip to Europe.

Both of the girls had quickly enrolled at respective schools to finish their interrupted educations. Buffy at a nearby college to finish her Psychology major and Dawn to finish her last year of high school in a Prep school that Giles had recommended. Xander and Buffy had been doubtful but Dawn's enthusiasm and Giles' and Willow's recommendations had out-weighed the two negative votes, so now Dawn was getting the education she needed since she had simply skipped the last year or so of school because of the First and then traveling around the world with Buffy and Faith, of all people.

Faith, after some consideration, had decided that for a few years she would lead the European Slayers to prevent any incidents with the law.

Buffy had been extremely happy when she told the group that her T.A this year was a woman, and unless she did a Willow she wouldn't have to worry about her date going all military on them. Everyone had been glad for this and some of them were trying to get their own love lives restarted.

Willow tried hard with Kennedy but it just didn't work and she was mainly drifting from girl to girl for the moment, the rest of the scoobies were glad when a dry eyed Willow had told them one morning that they had broken up last night, and that she was going to stop trying to rob the cradle for a few dates. She was currently taking her turn to watch over Cleveland since Wood had gone to N.Y. for a few days to attend a conference of some sort.

Xander, meanwhile had gone all Angel on them, preferring to brood about Anya, or spend time with one of the three girls he cared for so much. Buffy was determined not to date as well since the guys she liked always seemed to be either evil, work for evil, used to be evil or were just asses and Parker was enough of an ass to complete her need for ass guys.

Giles was dating Olivia again since he was spending a lot of his time back in England lately. When he wasn't visiting them or making trips to Cleveland. At the moment he was trying to salvage from the remains of what had been the Watchers Council HQ that had been buried beneath the explosion that Caleb had caused.

"So Dawnie, what's new?" Xander asked looking up over a set of blue prints he was studying. With the loss of his eye he wasn't able to be a construction worker anymore but he could, with a bit of training at college, be an architect, which was one of the deciding factors for him being stationed in their current city, due to its amazing building designs.

"Oh, nothing much." The beaming teen said as she walked into the lobby of the apartment building that they currently owned.

Buffy hadn't been sure about buying a place like this and most of the others were sure that Xander and Andrew had insisted on it so much was to compete against Angel's Hyperion hotel. Of course they now owned a number of buildings like this now as well. The last person to go down to visit the A.I team had ironically enough had been Andrew who enjoyed the traveling that was required of his new job. He hadn't talked a whole lot about what had happened down there and the others had all been too busy at the time to ask around when he had got back and only heard of the trip through the rumor mill. All the group knew was that he had taken a dozen slayers with him to help and he had reported to Giles before and after the whole incident and didn't even seem to remember going down there anymore.

"I just got a date." She squealed excitedly.

"A what!" Xander exclaimed as he snorted the coke that he had been drinking back out his nose. "Dang it! I hate it when that happens," he said rubbing his nose "the burn is just really annoying."

"Yep, I got a date for tonight." The girl said proudly, "It only took me like forever to get him to go and ask me what with gym class and chemistry and the hallway you'd think he would have asked me sooner." She said practically jumping in the air now in excitement over the boy in question.

"And his name would be what?" Came another somewhat calmer voice as Buffy rushed down the stairs in answer to her friends yell catching the last part of the conversation that her sister was having with him.

"He's this really cute guy that I go to school with his got the cutest smile when you can get him to and his hair is like darker than Xander's and."

"Is he human?" Buffy asked interrupting trying not to sound too inquisitive about her sisters newest heartthrob but she did want to make sure her sister was all right and didn't get hurt and while this city didn't have an active Hellmouth it did get a lot of demon activity.

"Since when did that ever stop you?" Dawn asked smiling at her sister an old argument that started the Halloween she had accidentally gone out with a vampire.

"Dawn." Buffy warned giving her sister a knowing smile as if to admit that she was right but not to push it as she gave a casual swipe that her sister easily ducked under.

"Yeah he seems like the perfectly normal guy oh yeah and he actually has a car." She glared at her sister, "and a bank account that might give the watcher accounts a run for their money."

"Okay I'm impressed already," Xander said "but I am the only one to make the really bad jokes around here Dawnster," he said mock glaring at his Scooby sister holding up a finger "and two," another finger came up, "who is he?"

"His name is Tim and he's perfectly normal Buffy he's not a secret soldier guy that uses the school as a training ground or anything like that." She assured her sister.

"Last name." Buffy said growing annoyed with her sister dodging the questions being thrown at her. "Why did we teach her how to talk her way around a question again?" She asked Xander, who just shrugged his shoulders obviously wondering the same thing.

Though the way Dawn was acting you would think he was the last available male on the planet.

"Tim Drake."


	2. Ch 2

Don't own anything Whedon owns all BTVS characters and whoever owns the D.C universe owns the Batman and his family.

Mucho thanks to SiN

CH 2

Tim smiled as he let himself into the legendary bat-cave. He was actually going inside of a place so secretive that less than a dozen people even knew it existed.

"Hey Tim what's up?" A voice asked from nearby as a figure dressed in a gray and blue bodysuit jumped off of a balance beam and landed on one of the large mats in a perfect landing that would have made Olympic gold medal winners jealous.

"Not much." the young man said as he strolled down the long stairs that led to the large super computer forensics lab and training area, running his hands along the buttons debating how he should do what he needed to do.

"Yeah right Boy Wonder." The other quipped as he used the nickname that came with the mantle of being Robin before he began doing flips.

"Yeah. Umm, Dick?" Tim said scuffing his feet against the floor, "Look I need a really big favor."

"Sure what's up," the man said stopping and turning to face the kid.

"Well I need you to distract Bruce for a few hours."

" Oh yeah sure anything else you want?" the other man asked. "You know, maybe have Joker, Clay Face, and Riddler play together in a mariachi band for the holidays as well. What the heck are you trying to pull?"

"Uh well you see," the younger man turned bright red, "I kind of have a date and I'd like to go on the first one with her before Bruce tries to uncover any and every little secret that she and her family might have."

"All right, hang on a minute, where did you meet her?"

"School."

"Good that will make it easier. Hey Babs, you listening to this?"

"You better believe I am, pal. This has to much embarrassing potential not to be listening in on." A voice replied over the intercom. It was Barbra Gordon, the computer hacker that ran and distributed all of the intelligence to the Bat family, JLA, and a few others under the guise of Oracle.

"This is so humiliating." The teen said his shoulders slumped even lower as another person was brought into his little secret he rubbed his eyes as he felt a headache coming on.

"Aww, isn't that cute."

"Bab's I don't think that's helping. Can you block Bruce for the few hours that the little lovebird is going to be out?"

"I think I can do that."

"Great and with the stuff I need to show Bruce we may be able to keep him to busy for at least two maybe three hours combined."

"Really like what?"

"You'll find out later, after all, we may be good but it takes time to hunt down these kinds of criminals." Nightwing said clapping the young man on the arm a little harder than need be. "Now get out of here and don't do anything that I wouldn't do." They heard the stifled giggles come over the speakers. "No comments, Bab's."

"Well, alright if you're sure and thanks, you guys are the best!" Tim said as he ran out of the cave hoping to avoid Bruce or Batman, as he was also known so that he could change for his date.


	3. ch 3

Don't own anything Whedon owns all BTVS characters and whoever owns the D.C universe owns the Batman and his family.

Beta done by SiN

Ch3

"Hey Dawn!" Tim said, glad that the girl hadn't decided to back out at the last moment. That would have been more than he could stand right now and both Dick and Barbra would ask how his date had gone.

"Hey ya, Cutie." Dawn said smiling as she jumped into the Redbird. He had made sure to have most of the special features and identifying marks concealed. "Nice set of wheels." She said impressed at the flashy red car.

"Thanks." He said as they took off, "so where you want to go?" he asked after a minute or two of cruising around town. "I know of this place kind of on the country roads that a lot of people go to dance and since the car thieves have been caught you can pretty much guarantee you don't have to call your folks for a ride home."

"Yeah that would be embarrassing and awkward." Dawn said nodding to the rock band that was playing along on the stereo system.

"Yeah," he said he frowned when he saw a large truck blocking the pathway that led to the dance hall. He then frowned even more when he noticed the other car that had been coming in behind him stop and kill its engine.

Dawn stopped listening to the music as she felt them stop and looked about. "Dang it your evil aren't you?" She said glaring at him with just the barest hint of a pout.

"No I'm not, and I didn't plan this," he said.

"Greetings mister Drake, if you and the lovely lady will step out we can get on out of the road?" A voice said over an echo phone.

"I really wished I could think of a way to get out of this one." Tim muttered as he opened the car door.

"Are you crazy? Stay inside!" Dawn hissed at him. Both of them had yet to notice that neither of them were scared despite the fact that they were both in an unknown situation, "and don't you dare say the W word you never know who could be listening."

"No, just smart." He said shrugging ignoring the comment about wishes. She got out as well wondering how long it would be till her sister let her forget this one. They raised their hands as they heard the unmistakable sound of guns cocking.

"So much for your promise of no car thieves," she said glaring at him.

"Quiet girl! So Mister Drake finally found himself a girl eh?" The voice bellowed. She going to go and cheat on you like that other girl did?" Tim flushed as he thought of the now pregnant girl as the men laughed at the comment. "Who are you girl?" The mocking voice asked "Another tramp to break our dear boy's heart?"

"She's Dawn Summers." Tim said hoping that they would leave her alone.

"Summers? As in the little sister to a certain Miss B Summers that girl who owns the apartment and hotel franchise?"

"Yep that's me," The girl said proudly, "and if you know anything actual about my sister then you'll know I am so not the person to mess with." Dawn glared at the direction of the voice even though Tim was fairly sure that the speaker was either in one of the cars or speaking from the safety of some safe house.

"Boys we're going to make a heap with these two!" The voice said several voice began chuckling at the thought of the money that would soon be coming to them.

"Something you forget to mention?" Tim whispered out the side of his mouth.

"Hey don't gripe at me I didn't think it was that big of a deal." Dawn said defending herself and her sister. "Anyway you said money wasn't important. And besides she just inherited the chain and some other stuff at the end of last year so I'm not used to being rich and stuff."

"Okay." He said shrugging as he turned back to the men in front of them as three men stepped up from behind the Redbird and tied their arms behind their backs.

"You know Tim you really know how to do the whole first date don't you?" Dawn asked a suggestive smile on the edges of her face one of the men chuckled at the comment. "I mean you've got the whole bondage thing going and all its kind of interesting change from the guys I usually date." She casually flipped her hair out of her face catching one of the men on his hands with a few beads that she wore strung through her hair the man swore quietly as he took a few steps back shaking the injured hand. Tim was sure he saw smug a grin creep over the false flirty grin. "I can hardly wait to see where you take me next time." she said as she grinned at the cursing man. They were then quietly placed into the car behind them the men left a note on the redbird before driving away to some new place.

"Oh yeah before we forget." One of the guards said as he placed a cloth over both their faces the last thing they saw were the dirty cloths pressed against them.


	4. ch 4

Don't own anything Whedon owns all BTVS characters and whoever owns the D.C universe owns the Batman and his family.

Thanks to beta work by SiN.

Ch4

"Nightwing what are you doing here?" Batman asked as he strode into the bat-cave his cape billowing behind him like the wings of his namesake.

"I'm not sure if you know about this particular problem I've been having." Dick said as he shook hands with his mentor, "but I've been trying to track down a kidnapping ring, I think Oracle briefed you about them earlier this week."

"Ah yes, the ones striking at the children of anyone rich whether they be the children of oil tycoon's or crime boss's then they demand payment for the return of the children or they throw them into slavery if they don't kill them." Batman's face grew graver as he thought about all of these children being threatened by these mystery men.

"Yeah that's the group I'm talking about. They leave something behind at a well known hangout of the person or where they nab them I think they're based somewhere between here and Gotham."

"I see, well then, I guess Oracle's told you about our own similar problems."

"Yeah she said you have a good chunk of the team working on it." The man said nodding,

"where are they by the way? The only people I've seen since I've gotten to town have been Robin and Alfred."

"I have Huntress working through Oracle watching the mafia families she recently lost a cousin who she thinks that she was getting through to and doesn't plan on loosing the boy anytime soon not with his birthday so soon."

"So the guy's about to become of age huh?"

"Yes and Huntress knows that once he crosses the line he may never come back so she's determined to find him before he's retrieved and placed in some kind of protective shell surrounded by the family for what would probably be the next ten years of his life."

"Great so what about the others?"

"Batgirl is patrolling the streets and Cat Woman is coming by later to show me some more of the notes that the robbers have left maybe we'll find a pattern. The real question is though with all of the kidnappings why hasn't anyone alerted the various law agencies?"

"Because most of the people they threaten appear to have a few skeletons in their closets or they're to far in supposed hiding that they can't do more than list their kids as missing maybe." The former trapeze artist answered.

"Doubtful there is something else going on. Alert Robin that I will need him to help Batgirl out with the patrols tonight while I go over the papers."

"He had a ton of homework, Bruce, so he probably won't get around to any of it till late."

"I see." Batman said his eyes narrowing at his former student, "is there a reason that he didn't leave a message on the computer"

"I was here, he talked to me and Oracle for a few minutes before he left." Nightwing shrugged.

"Heads up guys, we got problems seems as though the redbird was just sighted off the side of the road their sending a tow truck to bring it in."

"Where?"

"Location is in your computer banks now but it's a little bit out in the country." Oracle responded.

"Go." Nightwing said as Batgirl walked in. "Take her with you to stand guard because he's one of ours. I'll check the city for a while and I'll have Alfred come down here to meet Selina." The two-nodded Batgirl struggled to keep up with the rushing Batman as he jumped into the Bat mobile and the two roared off.

"Hey Bab's I thought he had a date? What in the world was he doing out there?" Dick asked as he pushed Alfred's calling button glad that it was still early knowing that the butler probably hadn't turned in yet. "Alfred I need you down here and ready to greet Cat Woman ASAP I've got to go something's up with Robin and his date I left her name on the computer find out who she is. Bruce and Cassandra are over where Tim was probably last seen. Later."

"As you wish Master Dick." The Butler said. The hero barely heard the response, as he was already halfway out the cave as Oracle defended herself over their letting the teen go on his date without any information.


	5. ch 5

Don't own anything Whedon owns all BTVS characters and whoever owns the D.C universe owns the Batman and his family

Ch5

"Oh shit." Buffy said as some of the beads she wore on her necklace began to glow brightly.

"Buffy!" Xander yelled as he rushed into the room holding his arm up showing a small bracelet with different colored beads on it all of the green ones were currently glowing like the ones on Buffy's necklace. "Good, you got the message," he said trying to regain a sense of calm

"Yeah I...ouch!" She said as the beads suddenly began to warm against her skin. "Damn thing could have burned me," she griped as she rubbed her neck tenderly, "we better call Will and the others."

"Yeah." Xander said picking up a phone when suddenly one of the windows flew open and a small tornado came sailing through. "Crap." He muttered as he dodged a piece of flying glass.

Buffy tensed up and tried to prepare herself because the last time the two of them had seen this particular tornado had been when Willow had gone all dark on them. "Willow!" She shouted into the wind

"Sorry!" The red haired girl said as she appeared standing next to a brunette where the tornado had been just moments before.

"Hey Will what's up?"

"Not much Xan." The witch said hugging her friend tightly. "What happened that caused Dawn to activate her beads?"

"Were not sure actually," he said returning the hug, "and why the hell was that tornado so big?" Xander asked staring at his friend and her traveling companion.

"Hey ya Xander how's the school life treating ya?"

"Its survivable," he said shrugging before his grin stretched across his face as he looked the girl up and down, now how are you?"

"Great, considering I just entered the country illegally inside a tornado." She said grinning.

"Just watch that first step after you get out I hear it's a real doozy." He said, "Will?" he looked at his friend since he was five years old and waited.

"Um, well you see its because I had to travel so far and fast and it just built up. It shouldn't have even gone into a tornado and I wouldn't have tried it if I had known what a mess it would make." The red head said franticly blushing at the mess surrounding them from her hasty entrance.

"Forget about the mess Wills, lets find Dawn and see what this new boyfriend of hers really is." Buffy said as she reached into the closet and brought out four bags," "here put these on." she said tossing a bag to each of the people in the room keeping one for herself.

"Huh?" Willow said as she looked at the contents in the bag. "Boyfriend? Since when does Dawn have a boyfriend?"

"Since she went out on a date this evening." Xander said as he looked at the contents of his own bag.

"Way to go little D!" Faith said as she whistled in appreciation at the contents of her bag.

"So what all this B?"

"Simple, this is the Bat's city we play by his rules," the slayer said casually, "at least for now, and Dawn helped me with it." She admitted as she twirled the Scythe experimentally in the air. "Now lets go get my sister."


	6. ch 6

Don't own anything Whedon owns all BTVS characters and whoever owns the D.C universe owns the Batman and his family.

Forgot to say it in last chap but Thankyou SiN for your work.

Ch6

Buffy looked at the ground before them there were two cars, one was a bright shiny red that made her want to gag the other was a solid black with all sorts of odd things on the side. "Guys and their toys," she said grinning at the only guy with them that was glaring at the chuckling girls. "Stay back here unless I call you. "Will, can you do that mind thingy of yours that you do?"

"Sure." The witch said nodding as her best friend headed toward the two vehicles.

Buffy walked down toward the two cars and stood for nearly a minute between them "So you gonna show yourself or are you going to wait in the shadows the whole time?" she asked as she waited for the figure to drop down beside her. The figure nodded at her after he landed and stood in front of her glaring as if waiting for her to speak. When she didn't seem to be impressed with his presence or manner he turned his back on her and began to search the Redbird he recognized the camouflage coating on the car as he scanned for evidence of a struggle.

"So what happened?" The figure asked Batman. Turned to look at the small figure that had come up to his crime scene. The figure was short female and was wearing some type of leather uniform or costume and over that she was wearing a black leather trench coat that trailed behind like the cape he wore did and some type of medieval weapon was strapped to her back as well.

"Unknown, the foot prints," he nodded at the ground, "indicate that two people were in the vehicle."

"Yeah," she nodded as she stooped to look at something, "the driver was moving real careful like while the passenger was kind of antsy like he wanted to either run or fight."

She said pointing to the different paces that the two figures had had and if she knew Dawn the passenger side belonged to her.

"True, but the weight from those track indicates a young girl or woman."

"Looks like your right." she said nodding to him," course the fact that she was wearing heels with at least three inches helps to." She commented then moved over to a nearby tree, "looks like somebody got caught by surprise" she said Batman walked over to where she was and saw a dark smear against a tree

"Blood," he stated.

"Yes Captain Obvious and from the way those tracks are I'd say that it was the girl who either cut someone or was cut cause they were led off to the side for a moment. Besides" she added flippantly, "its always about blood."

Batman nodded this new player in his city whether a permanent feature or a passerby was good he hadn't missed the tracks leading that way either nor had he missed the way the woman's nostrils had flared under her half mask as she followed the tracks. "Those enhanced senses must serve you well when tracking."

"Damn they weren't kidding when they said you were good at this." She said looking at him.

"I'll have this analyzed." He said reaching for the bark.

"Why you?" She asked catching his arm in a tight grip before he could grab the wood.

"Because I have a crime lab in my car what do you have?" He questioned breaking her hold and retrieving the bark

"Okay I just thought you were going to try and waltz off with one of the few clues we had."

"There is no we, miss-"

"I don't care," she said ignoring the obvious invitation for her name. "I've been ordered to this city and someone that is connected to my life goes missing I have to check it out whether you like it or not."

"And how do you know that anyone here was connected to anything that concerns you?" he countered.

"Simple I deal with problems that deal with the occult mister smarty pants and that girl has connections to one of the major players in the Occult world."

"I really hate magic." The Bat muttered as he opened his trunk and gently laid down the scrap of wood in his trunk so that his equipment could analyze the blood on it and hopefully come up with a match.

"Preaching to the choir pal, I don't particularly like it my self but I do know that it has an awful lot of uses and has saved my butt more than once."

"Batman what the hell is that stuff?" Oracle's voice said over the intercom built into the trunk as the results went through her connection to the super computer at the Bat-Cave.

"Unknown Oracle, what do you know about any people with the Occult being told to come here?"

"There's nothing that I've heard. I'll E-mail some of our friends and see what they know maybe Wonder Woman has heard something through the grapevine."

"Get on it I don't like strangers in my city."

"Gee are you always this civil or am I just lucky?" A woman asked Oracle stifled a laugh,

"I mean said stranger is right here batty."

Whoever this person was, was either was great at putting on a show, overly confidant or too new at the game of shadows to be considered a real threat to anyone but the way Batman was acting this didn't appear to be a rookie so it had to be one of the other two. The accent reminded her of California probably the southern part of the large state.

"So what's this mean to you Oracle?"

"I'm not sure actually." She admitted confused at the odd blood work results she was reading. While part of it looked human another part looked completely alien to her and not alien like Superman's blood but alien like it had pieces in it that shouldn't mix with fresh blood and still be runny.

"What's the prob?"

"There are several unknown minerals in the blood sample that theoretically means that whoever bled this shouldn't be alive or have even bled for that matter."

"So let me see if I'm following ya this thing has blood that's not blood is that what your saying."

"Why would you call it a thing?"

"Hello! We live in a world where flying guys are called the men of tomorrow although personally I prefer my guys to be a bit more down to earth where I can reach them without a plane or rocket ship it just takes to long to get them in to the bed."

"That does sound like a reasonable goal." Oracle agreed not quiet believing that she was agreeing so easily with the crazy suggestion the woman had thought up.

"Back to the topic how do you know that it's not a human being?" Batman asked his patience with the woman fraying.

"Habit really," she said easily, "I'm used to fighting the things that don't have souls and stuff, but this thing is at least part human you can tell that by the way the helix is in the third and twelfth parts. But the other parts are real confusing to me I'd say maybe a vengeance demon or maybe a Fyarl they have red blood."

"I believe the seventh and tenth cells will help you miss. An English voice said over her ramblings.

"Whoa you didn't tell me you had a watcher on call for you." The woman said backing up and falling into a defensive stance

"Alfred what did you do?" Oracle said over a different communication frequency

"I am sorry miss Gordon but that is an extremely private matter that I hold as private as my responsibilities to Master Bruce." Came the reply in a voice that the woman knew well as a voice that offered no give and that he would hold the secret unless he was given leave by the person he held the secret for.

"So what's with the Watcher?" The woman asked watching for any movements from Batman.

"I'm not sure what the term watcher means," Batman replied, "but the owner of that voice is a close friend of mine."

"Yeah, yeah whatever, and here I thought you were actually one of the good guys." She said continuing to back away from Batman.

"Give it a rest girl I'm not going to have to prove myself to you." Batman ground out as he turned back to the trunk the woman hung back out of arms length. "Anything else you can tell us old friend?" He was careful not to use any names.

"Yes sir, it appears to be a blood type from a minor demon or half-breed."

"Whoa hold it minor demon half-breeds are involved in this little run of kidnappings that have been going all over the city and the one next door?"

"So your aware of the other kidnappings, my dear?" Alfred asked surprised at the information that the woman had.

"Yeah I also know what a load of B.S your kind our usually full of," She said ignoring the praise being offered. "Besides aren't you and all your buddies in merry old England all supposed to be well, dead? And like not messing in my life anymore?"

"My dear Alfred what did your kind do to her?" Cat woman said as she leaned back in her chair as she admired a piece of jewelry in a display case.

"If she is the person I believe her to be Miss Kyle she has quite a reason to have ill feelings toward some of my former associates before I came into service of the Wayne's who did things slightly different." The butler said shrugging unconcerned about the questions the woman was asking, "oh and don't try and find out what I used to do unless you want to have yourself thrown into an alternate dimension or worse."

"If you say so." The woman said shrugging as she went back to what she had been doing.

"So we have guys who use the whole human aspect of themselves to hide as humans and their kidnappers." The woman muttered. "I guess Doyle was just an exception."

"Yes according to my friend that is what has happened, and who was Doyle?"

"A good Half-breed." she said distractedly." what else do we know about these guys and how do we deal with them?"

"Well the traditional manner for you would be to destroy them as you would any other creature of darkness."

"What do you mean destroy!" Batman asked angrily into his own comm.

"Tell you what, we'll meet you there." The woman said brightly as she began scrounging around the redbird looking for any more clues. "Hey what's this?" she said as she pulled out a small note that had fallen under a rear tire.

"Give me that." He said holding his hand out.

"Sorry no can do my boss will want to see this," she said tucking the note away in a hidden pocket.

"It wasn't a request." He said scowling.

She chuckled, "Is that supposed to be the real scary look I've been hearing about? I mean seriously I've been facing big bads since I was 16 what makes you think that a little bit of your mean looks and saying do as your told is going to work on me?" She said mimicking his tone.

"Batman do not antagonize her she is easily as dangerous as you and has probably trained to fight since her childhood not to unlike certain other individuals."

Batman blinked in surprise Alfred was rarely this vocal when he was out at least when there were people listening in he thought. "You never told me your name."

"How about we just say I'm a friend all right?"

"I don't need friends like you." He said glaring at her back as she walked off with the note

Smiling the woman replied, "I didn't say I was yours." Before she disappeared into the shadows better than even batman could. He was impressed. She had let him know she was coming when she approached.


	7. ch 7

CH7

"So where are we?" Dawn asked.

The two of them had woken up to find themselves locked inside a large empty square building with no obvious door, it had a small office above them on one side of  
the room, an occasional person would look out at them from time to time. The room also had other teens and children sitting in various places around the area. After checking themselves for injuries all they had found were small metallic bracelets that beeped occasionally. Tim had told her they were tracking devices Dawn had nodded and then in a completely Buffy  
moment Instead of Blonde moments Dawn gets Buffy moments. She complained that the device clashed with her light baby blue blouse and black pants saying that with his red shirt and black slacks he at least looked all right with the bracelet. They were currently leaning against the wall waiting for their heads to stop spinning from the affects of the drugs they had inhaled earlier.

"I'm not sure actually." Tim admitted truthfully, the whole capture had come as so much surprise that he hadn't gotten a chance to use any of the training that Bruce had put into him before he was allowed to even truly don his costume. 

"And I thought I knew all of the good hangouts too," he said as he saw the large number of teens all around them and wondered just how many people these people were trying to get money from because the money was all that these guys could want after their gloating in front of the two of them.

"Oh well, we can either bitch and moan like those two," Dawn said nodding to two teen girls in tight fitting dresses with low cut necks yelling at the top of their lungs, "or we can walk around the building and talk after that fun ride in the land of sleep." She pulled herself up and waited to see if Tim would come with her. Smiling Tim nodded, glad that he now had an excuse to check the perimeter out and that his date hadn't turned into a crying wreck like the girls she had mentioned so that he could get an idea on how he might best break out of the warehouse they were stuck in.

"So what did you do that got all of those guys mad at you? Cause they were so after you and not me." She said grinning mischievously at her date.

"Well it's actually a ransom thing," He began explaining before she hit him on the shoulder.

"Will you lighten up already?" she griped crossing her arms. "It was meant as a joke. Like all bad guys they decided to go and run their mouths off I mean seriously do you think the whole fact that he basically said more money for all of us passed me?" She glared at him daring him to answer yes.

"Um no." He admitted sheepishly, "but most people like to live in the world of denial in these kinds of situations and I thought I was just letting you down gently."

She snorted in a very unladylike manner, "Yeah right. That was as gentle as one of Spike's uppercuts."

"Who?"

"An old friend of the family who had a bit of a love hate styled relationship with my big sis." She said turning her head away so he wouldn't notice the tears that threatened to spill over at the thought of the souled vampire that had sacrificed himself to save her and Buffy. She wasn't sure if even he would have done it soul or no soul if they hadn't been running away unless they had died then he would have wanted to take as many as those wankers with him as possible and then  
a few more just to piss the First off. Then he might still not have done it and just gone demon hunting if it made people mad. "Besides no changing the subject."

"I'm sorry," Tim said holding his hands up in surrender hoping that she wasn't going to loose the  
cool composure she had. As Robin, the Boy Wonder sidekick to the legendary Batman he knew just what and how to do something but as Tim Drake he felt like a total tool a lot of the time.

"Look, I'm sorry." He said as forcefully as he could. "I didn't mean anything by it, honest. I was just, you know, curious."  
"Tim!" A distressed voice said as a small teen came barreling into him breaking the spell that had started to fall over them.

"Wha-! Oh hey Cindy." He said as he pulled the blond girl off of him that was doing her best impression of an octopus right about now.

"Hey Cindy! Is that all you can say?" The girl said her tears dripping into his shirt. "I've been in this awful excuse of a home for the past three days."

"Easy Cindy, it will be all right. I'm sure your father will get you out as soon as possible, maybe  
they just want to make him sweat a bit before they meet with him."

"I don't care about their stupid games! I want out of this place now, Tim!" The girl screamed hysterically at him.

"You realize that nothing your going to say is going to make her be anymore agreeable right?" Dawn asked smirking as she waited for her new friend to disentangle himself from the sobbing mess still connected to his waist despite his efforts. Personally she was glad for the distraction so that her eyes had dried up enough after the almost waterworks and that she hadn't spilled any of the beans about her sister and her night work cause that usually entered trouble.

"Uh Dawn, this is Cindy. We've known each other for a few years, mainly cause our dads did a big business deal together and they spent a lot of time traveling back and forth." He explained as he introduced the two girls still trying to break Cindy's death grip.

"Tim you shouldn't be talking with her. She might belong to one of those criminal families." The girl said as quiet as she could manage which was still awfully loud since the girl had just been crying her eyes out.

Dawn perked up at this, "so your saying that station doesn't matter to these guys they're just striking at anyone with a large amount of money?"

"Yes, no ome is really safe anymore!" The girl wailed, "and what's worse they put us all in the same small room! With the illegal people as well, now they may be used to hiding out in dumps like this but I assure you I am not!"

Dawn scanned the room and saw a definite line in the room a strip of land that was bare of anyone. "So that's why we have the whole empty spot huh? Its a kind of border zone that says who's who in the whole money class thing."

"Yes!" Cindy nodded, "I mean can you imagine actually trying to hold a civilized conversation with some of those people? They're the kind of vermin," she wrinkled her nose in distaste as she looked over at the other group of teens, "who see people killed in their parents basements all the time and probably go along for the ride when they go and throw the bodies in the river and stuff."

"Gee judgmental much?" Dawn asked walking away.

"Who does she think she think she is!" Cindy asked Tim glaring at the brunette as she casually made her way to the center of the room before sitting down in the middle facing one of the walls that didn't rate a side but was neither facing or ignoring either side.

"Umm I'd say she thinks she's tough enough to handle herself." Tim said watching the young woman admiringly. He was proud about her behavior toward his sometimes friend while it might have been a bit rude it was no ruder than Cindy had been treating the mafia royalty and it was never a really a good idea to have rich kids griping over the legalities of the way their  
parents earned money.

He finally managed to break away from his friend by handing her off to another guy he knew who was a bit of a jock before he continued the circuit as much as he could with the room split off like it was he could only do half the room. He thought it would be a good idea to check on Dawn to make sure she hadn't found any trouble. He found her chatting with two familiar faces in Victor Krank, the son of one of the German mafia's top lieutenants and to Huntress's kid cousin  
Anthony, the first was 19, while the other was 15, and was turning 16 in about three months if he remembered correctly. Almost ready to be initialized into the old family business he thought idly wondering if he would have to be the one to bring the guy in.

"So tell me what was the best part of the Lord of the Rings, in your professional movie watching opinion?"

"Hmm that's a good question. Personally I enjoyed the part where Gandalf was yelling 'You Shall Not Pass'," Anthony said whispering in a mock shout, "and the whole fight before hand what about you Vic?"

"The battle at Helm's Deep my friend, that was a truly wicked fight they made."

"Well the whole falling down and coming back to life thing gave me, my sister, and some of our friends some really weird vibes." Dawn said shuddering for a moment, "and the whole Helm's Deep thing was a bit overrated I thought." She said grinning at her new friend's, "I liked the whole Ent army marching into battle like they were going to pull Sauraman's body into little bitsy pieces and show him what a really pathetic person he was."

"Yeah that was a kind of interesting part," the 19 year old said nodding. "Hey yo! You! English," he yelled to a kid with a British accent. "What was your favorite scene in the movie?"

"I would definitely say it would have to have been when Pippin sang to Lord Denthor, the song was a most moving piece of work I do believe." The boy said adjusting his glasses that were bent slightly from being stepped on or he had been punched.

Tim just shook his head amused as others began to put their own personnel favorite scenes up for discussion; Dawn just seemed to make most people relax. There was still about four or five kids on each side refusing to participate in the film discussion that Dawn had arranged that almost every one could find some middle ground in. He was disappointed to see Cindy glaring at  
Dawn and amused to see that she was ignoring the blond as if she didn't even exist.


	8. ch8

Well **General Mac **here's more

What! **mystjade**Wizard doesn't know everything! How can you say that? Oh well I guess you already did. I'll consider the B/D pairing now at least

Your right **dogbertcarroll,** the chaps are extremely short because some of my other tales that have longer chaps aren't doing so well I'm trying to approach the whole story writing thing from a different angle maybe eventually I'll do longer chaps but for now I'll stick to my shorter ones hope that doesn't dissapoint you to much. Glad you like the story enough to give some feedback. Chapters 9 and 10 will be much longer though just kind of happened.

You actually like it when I update,**lilguji** well thank you I had to resort to a trivia game to have some people to give me any feedback with a Marvel/Star Wars story and my last and longest chap didn't even get a stinking review, thinking about removing the whole dang fic.

Don't own anything Whedon owns all BTVS characters and whoever owns the D.C universe owns the Batman and his family

A lot of thanks to SiN again!

I have changed to a PG 13 rating cause I can't have faith talk the way she should cause face it most of the timewhen you think of her talking you think cussing at least I do.

Ch 8

"All right Will's, talk to me." Buffy said as she threw herself into her chair at the large table in the  
library. Her jacket thrown back in the bag it came from. "Like where the heck is my sister?"

"Well Buffy, whoever these guys are they were prepared." Willow said, frustrated, "They've placed blocking spells on several layers of wherever they're  
hiding Dawnie, it'll take time to find them, and maybe even longer to break through all of the spells they're using." The woman pushed her hair out of her face as she tried to concentrate on what she was doing.  
"Do we have time, Red?" Faith asked as she and Xander leaned against the doorframe as far from the angry lead slayer as possible and still stay in the room.

"I'm pretty sure that whatever these guys are, we can handle them," Xander said nonchalantly, but the question is what will these guys do to the Dawnster while we're out looking for her?"

"If they're as smart as they seem to be, nothing." Willow said shrugging hoping that she was hiding her fear better than she thought she was, and that no one noticed the quiver in her voice. She looked at the paper note that Buffy had handed off to her after they had left the very annoyed looking Batman, that was a benefit of having the mind link, they could all see through each other's eyes.

"I'm just glad I was able to find all those tracks before the police came and messed them all up." The slayer said.

"So it looks like the lessons I gave you paid off tonight." Xander said smiling proudly at the blonde.

She nodded and grinned a bit at the remark, after the deal with the First the threesome agreed that there would be no more secrets amongst them, one of the secrets to be disposed of had been that Xander told them that he had retained all of his Hyena memories and could still track for some odd reason.

"How else could I always find someone in good old  
Sunnydale after all?" He had asked them." The enhanced senses were truly gone but the instinct was still there. He had coached Buffy and Faith in tracking with all of their senses since they were both just a couple of city girls who had little knowledge about such things, adding yet another advantage to their already impressive slayer arsenals.

"Good," he said standing up to his full height, "so we got a bunch of half demons holding a lot of rich snobby Cordelia wannabe's somewhere around the city. They either have a real powerful regular demon/vampire boss or a really good witch or wizard working for them. If its just a vamp witch or wizard and not some butt ugly wannabe ruler".

"Warlock, Xander, the term is Warlock." Willow said glaring at her friend.

"Aw c'mon Will's, with all of the Harry Potter crap going on your telling me no one has decided to go and change the name?"

"He's got a point there, Red." Faith said in as serious a tone as she could muster without laughing  
her guts out all over the floor. "It would make things easier on them if they called them Wizards, and not to mention Warlock, sounds more like a demon, than a guy, you know?"

"I don't care." Willow said shaking her head, "its Warlock not wizard. Wizardry is a whole different branch of magic."

"So there really are people that walk around shooting magic out of their sticks?" Buff asked despite her impatience at finding her sister, she knew they were all trying to think of a way to save the girl, they were just doing the Scooby gang method of calming themselves down. When they found the ugly creeps that had captured the kids the things would wish that they had never been born or at the very least never come to this little city that was fast becoming Hell Central.

"Anyway," The witch said evading the question. "Every spell I've tried so far on that has left me with no clues at all. I also tried a locater spell but that's being blocked as well so it will take time for me to find the right method to get at them."

"Right, um Xand, did you check the answering machine yet." Buffy asked looking for something to do.

" Huh? Oh, not yet." The young man rushed to check the machine hoping it wasn't a way to just get rid of him. He saw the flashing light on the top grabbing a sticky note and a pen he hit the play button to hear a familiar cultured voice coming at him and one that he kind of didn't want to hear at the moment all things considered. "Ah crud."

"Buffy, it's Giles, I'm at my place and England, that piece of bloody enchanted jewelry Willow insists that we all wear actually got hot and glowed tonight. Call me when you have the chance."

"Oh that is just so great!" Buffy said as she heard the message from the other room groaning. "He'll be down here faster than Willow was if were not careful." She laid her head into her arms as she contemplated her options. "And there is no way I'm going convince him to stay home or to wear a mask."

"Well if he were to have a glamour or something done to him, maybe you could take him with you then." Willow said smiling.

"Lets hope so, because it's going to be hard to sneak a whole lot past the guy who runs the night life out here."

"Yeah, especially since you went and made him all angry." Xander said laughing.

"Yeah B, and did you see all those muscles on him? Faith grinned evilly as she thought about the Dark Knight.

"Forget it Faith. I hear he has a zero tolerance program going with anyone who killed, no matter what the circumstances, or how much major progress you made," Buffy said sadly. "I don't think I could even make much of an impression on him, and he might be more of a pain in the ass than other people."

"Damn, all of the good looking ones never seem to be able to have the half conscience they do in movies." Faith said scowling as she hooked her thumbs into her belt loops.

"Yeah." Buffy agreed as she tried to think of some other way to find her sister's kidnappers.

"How about fingerprints? Any chance that we might find our boy's fingerprints if their part demon?"

"Its certainly worth a shot." Willow nodded, "but I don't own the right kind of equipment to make a real close study. Cause I mean hello, where's the trail of blood and guts or all the smashed in walls that we usually follow I hate this whole wait and see style this city has," the redhead griped before she considered all of her options. "Well it will take time to get that kind of equipment, but we could always ask Batman to run the test if we can't think of anything to work you know."

"Oh yeah I can just see that now Red, after our girl B here, walks off with the info. We just turn it over to him and will you please tell us what is on there."

"So his whole dark warrior image was old news to me." Buffy said shrugging, "I mean seriously that guy could have been Angel under that mask, the way he was treating this kidnapping."

"Well we could always ask dead-boy if he's been making Gotham his second home." Xander joked. "What?" He asked at the glares he received.

"Did you forget the whole staying out of other people's way till we got our degrees deal?" Buffy  
asked. "I mean Giles knew we wouldn't be able to totally stay away from all things demony so he agreed to let us study in a place with a large demon un-life but there aren't supposed to be any kinds of end of the world things happening here.

"Yeah and besides the only watcher that Angel would bother asking anything is Wes not that other guy that he was talking to."

"Yeah, and Giles said nothing big is supposed to happen here for probably the next hundred and fifty years or so. Which means that a watcher shouldn't really be in this area. Not even one who was stuck in an observatory post.

"Ooh, nicely done with the whole big word selection Buffy, but it's a hundred and forty three, actually." Willow piped up as she got back up and went to the small library of occult books that the original Scooby team kept on hand. "Lets see," she said glancing at the books hoping to find just the right book to let them find their missing teen.

"Um Will, you do know that most of the major stuff is kept hidden and out of reach from wannabe magic Dawn right?" Xander asked from his spot in the doorway as he saw the disappointed wiccan's face as she looked confusedly around the room.

"Oh yeah." She grinned, "Where is the dangerous stuff kept?"

"Show her Xan, she's going to love this." Buffy said trying to stay grim, but a small smile was threatening the edges of her frown.

"Right-O, one selection of super powerful magic books coming up, my lady." Xander said grinning rubbing his hands together as he twisted a knob on a mirror opening a small chamber that held a cage, a bed, various weapons, and three large shelves of books that were built into each of the walls. "Pretty cool huh?" Xander said grinning at their stunned witch and slayer guests. Before proudly gesturing to the Scooby Doo movie posters that had there own places of honor in the room.

"Where did you get all of that stuff?" Willow said surprised as she held herself back as she looked  
around till she saw the desk with a high powered computer on it and rushed over to the desk letting out a squeal of excitement completely oblivious of the chuckling group of people.

"Found the access when Dawn was at school actually." Buffy said getting out of her chair as she forced herself up and watched the red head go through several windows as she tried to access the information that was on it. "The joy of buildings the council owned then sold when they got to scared eh?" She grinned a bit fuller at having a building that the council was to scared to own for the Scoobies the mental battle with the council would never end. "One of the best parts is the room can only be accessed by Xander or me."

"But Will's got in there just fine." Faith said gesturing to the witch.

"Only cause Xan opened the barrier for the two of you." Buffy said grinning, "sure Will could have  
eventually broken through but there would have been a lot of damage done to the stuff in there and anybody willing to waste that much power on the door will definitely not want any of that stuff messed up."

"But how? Neither of you has ever been real big on the whole magic thing." Faith argued suspiciously.

"You're right there," Xander said shrugging. "We found this room already protected by its magic barrier actually, evidently the spell was that the owner or whatever of the house is allowed to know about the room. Then there are all of the fancy, shmancy talismans and amulets all over that we managed to get our hands on, and activate."

"Okay, if you're sure that that no one else even knows about your Bond style headquarters." Faith shrugged and peered in watching the red head summon book after book as she searched for just the right locater spell.

"And another fun night of going into research mode." Xander drawled as he saw the red head delving happily into the research materials she now had access to.

"What's the bet that she wouldn't notice if we went bar hopping for demons with loose tongues?" Faith asked suggestively.

"No bet here." Xander shook his head as the two slayers grinned like the predators they were. "I'll go get the outfits out again," he said leading the two out of the room

"Let's try not to scare them too much, Faith. I don't want to have all of the people scared speechless when Xan and I have to deal with a problem on our own in this lovely piece of Urban Hell, that we're guarding now." Buffy said grinning at her wild, dark haired counterpart.

"Your no fun at all, B." The other girl complained as the three prepared to leave for an information hunt, at all of the demon bars that they knew about so far.

"Have fun, Will!" Xander said waving to his oblivious red headed buddy, as they left the secret room and headed back to the streets.


	9. ch 9

CH 9

**Storm Dragoness, General Mac **and** CPTSkip **am going as fast as possible folks sorry its taking so long just every time I thought I had finished this chap I thought of something new to add I think I actually added an extra page or two to this chap because of that.

**dogbertcarroll **Yeah Will was hacker girl first before she got the whole magic bug that kind of screwed her right and wrong meter all up. As for the block that's more her guess as to why she can't find the lost kids

**crimsonfire** it was extremely helpful I think I only made two or three mistakes that's something new for me.

**Rachel **you're going to make my head blow with all of those ? of yours but that all right if you have that many then I ain't doing something right some of your ? will be answered in this whale of a tale others I will answer. Okay when you asked about Selina yes she was in the cave remember when I had Nightwing make that mystery run and he called the butler and informed him of what was going on. No Buffy was the only one on the crime scene the rest of them were just mind linked or whatever you call it letting them see and hear everything that was going on a trick Willow should never have dropped even if it did make her seem a bit to Jean Grey.

**Speak Out** cool name by the way and you don't now enough about the Bat you poor unfortunate person I do most of My Bat search at the library and the video store. Glad you think its good.

Alright **Jaspis** here's the scoop on the batgirl Barbara Daughter of former commissioner Gordan was the first Batgirl till Joker shot her in the spine there was no Batgirl till Huntress donned a new version of it during the No Man's Land story arc Batman stripped her of the costume after she failed to stop two face from taking control of Batman's territory about halfway through the No Man's Land arc he then gave the costume to the daughter of one of Batman's former teachers the bounty hunter Cain. Oracle was taking care of and using her as a messenger at the time the girl was brought up to be an assassin and made her first kill at the age of 7, she never learned how to talk with words but learned how to talk through body motions a language that her father was trying to create, So Cassandra Cain is the current holder of the Batgirl mantle recently though a meta human gave her the gift of speech in some weird way or other nearly got her killed when she couldn't read a person anymore she has since learned to fight again. Glad you like what I write.

**mystjade** just to reassure you Angel IS NOT THE BAT!! Are you relieved now? I hope so can't think of any other ways to assure you with so we'll just have to deal. One problem at a time though right? Glad you like my corny references to other popular movie and books if you have a popular series of some sort that you like I will try to put it in. As for insulting me I laugh at that hah, hah, hah. To insult me you would have to say something bad about TEXAS or my family except for my father that is he is totally insult worthy feel the love right? Otherwise you will find I am not likely to get to angry at anything you say. I mean hey, I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech if I didn't live someplace where that was allowed I would definitely be in jail somewhere. Also makes me glad I was home schooled else I would have been kept late everyday for mouthing off or telling a coach or teacher what I really thought of their shit for brains methods sorry if that offends anyone but most Public School methods really do stink like rotten ice. I am just way to sarcastic sometimes so rag me and my style if you want you know the two don'ts on the insult radar. So, you say what you want about a mag it is all-cool with me, alright compradre? If Wizard was Hoping I was going to stand up for them they were gravely mistaken.

And now that I have jabberd more than I ever talk in person, I prefer to channel my inner Oz to the point it drives my older sis crazy sometimes heh, heh. On with the tale!!

"Alfred we need to talk." Batman said, as he and Batgirl jumped out of the sleek black car that had just roared into the giant cave, neither of them commenting on the way the surprise visitor had left the two of them in slight confusion.

"Yes I suppose that we do, don't we master Bruce." The butler said unenthused at the prospect of the upcoming conversation that was about to come between the two of them. The wrong words could easily start an argument. He sighed hoping that he would have the right words to satisfy both of his loyalties, one to his charge, and the other upon his word of honor. "But I do believe that we should talk about it out here in the open. Instead of having all of your young protégées," the butler nodded to Batgirl, Nightwing, Catwoman and the blinking screen that indicated Oracle being online as they listened in anticipation to the butler's odd behavior about the, "trying to listen in like young children wanting to over hear what their parents are trying to say behind locked doors. Besides," Alfred grinned easily at Nightwing, "Master Dick never did learn not to listen in on private conversations no matter how many times you caught him in the act at the proverbial door."  
The other heroes chuckled slightly at the small icebreaker except for Batman who just waited.

"Hey, c'mon. You guys taught me to be sneaky and all of that." Nightwing defended himself. "And you can't actually teach a kid to do something one way and not expect him to try it out on you if anything you were bad role models."

"Very well Alfred." Batman said nodding his head quietly in agreement ignoring Nightwing's attempts of keeping the group well humored. "Who was that girl tonight?" He questioned as a blurred image of the leather-clad girl came up on the main screen before them, the image struggled to focus.

The figure stood almost nonchalantly, dressed in the familiar blacks that most heroes in the city seemed to wear but where as theirs were all muted dark hers had an almost shine to them. She wore heavy combat boots, tight leather pants a halter-top and the trench coat she wore covered her as effectively as a cape. She wore some type of gloves over her hands as well the high collar was turned up hiding her neck but a silver cross could be seen on a thick leather choker. She wore a mask that covered most of her face and the top of her head but had larger slits in it than most of the masks they wore the weapon she carried strapped to her back looked like some ancient weapon but with her body covering most of it all they could see was the wicked blade that stuck out behind her shoulder.

"Incredible. She appears to be protected even from your methods of surveillance Master Bruce." The older man said to the Dark Knight.

"Yes I noticed that myself." Batman grunted crossing his arms and glaring at the fuzzy image. "This is actually after the computers cleaned up the image, whatever technology she's using it has to be extremely powerful to disrupt the image that much. It should have been impossible to do as a matter of fact." He looked back at his most trusted friend.

"Yes, well a lot of what the young lady is involved in should be impossible, of course much of what you yourself get involved in is extremely odd on many nights."

"Maybe." Batman said as he removed his cowl to stand face to face with the closest thing to a father he had, had since that horrid night so many years ago that stole his own father and mother away from him. "But I still need to know what the hell is going on with this woman."

"I am truly sorry Master Bruce, but like I told Miss Salina, that is something that I simply cannot reveal to you at this point in time." The butler looked at the other man and patiently waited for his reaction to his refusal to discuss what he knew. The only reason for this action though is that in the service of a previous employer I gave my word to the secrecy to never tell anyone about the information that I am privileged to hold. Besides it could very well mean that you spent even less time at home trying to fight as she does." Alfred said all he could say and

"Listen, not to be a party crasher or anything," Nightwing interrupted. "But the girl seemed more intent on finding the kidnappers than anything else, and if Alfred says that she's reliable, even if her methods aren't the same as ours. I say we let her do her thing for now. After all," he smirked, "there's no way that she has the resources to take on all of us. If she gets out of hand, we'll deal with her then."

"Be careful Master Dick, this girl is not someone to take lightly. From miss Barbara's, miss Cassandra's, and Master Bruce's descriptions and what I do know she could easily be a match for any one of you, and might even rival the JLA in her survival rate. She also has saved as many if not more lives than you have Master Dick, and she is given even less recognition than any of you are given."

"That's just low, I mean the whole hero biz has seriously bad paying rates as it is, And now your telling me that she doesn't even get any of the glory either?" An extremely annoyed Catwoman asked.

"Yes that is exactly what I am saying Miss Selina." The butler nodded at the thief. "Why, one as old as her may have saved the world as many as three times in her young life her age marks her as being very impressive person to the world."

"Impressive description Alfred, but that doesn't say whether or not she's something we have to worry about or not." Batman practically growled although everyone knew that none of the threats that he had would ever work on the much older man.

"I'll have to contact some former associates of mine to find out for sure if this is the young girl I believe her to be. If she is not then your guess will be as good as mine Master Bruce, and I will not interfere in this particular investigation again."

"All right Alfred, I may not like this one bit but I also know that I won't get anything more out of you." Batman took the blood sample he had and took it to his lab a much more advanced version of his car lab and with more advanced equipment.

"You do realize that someone is going to have to inform Master Drake, and the elder Miss Summers, that their young charges are missing are you not sir?"

"That's for the police to handle Alfred," Nightwing said, "and unlike my base the police here are for the most part trying to stop the crime, and not adding to it, with the good cops having to be nothing more than a rarity."

"I understand that you are still disturbed about your time on the police force Dick, but don't let it cloud your judgment. You might have an insight that could help us with that time you spent. Now I want your opinion on some of these samples that were going to run."

"Yeah sure." The man replied sarcastically as he followed his former teacher into the giant crime lab to help find clues that would lead to the kid that was almost like a kid brother to him while Alfred headed upstairs to consider his options in contacting his former employers.

"The blood is but one of the clues we have Nightwing." Batman said from his spot in front of a microscope, "Another clue it seems that we have is that our bleeder left a few of his fingerprints, when he leaned against the tree." Batman pointed to the signs of the needed prints." Judging by the way his tracks were and the amount of blood, he was cut somewhere along his face, he then tried to stop the blood flow with his hand, and then attempted to clean himself up in a hurry."

"Alright, so something slices him deep enough to make this guy, or whatever he is bleed. Dick hypothesized thinking what he knew about the crime scene The supposed bleeder wipes the blood on the tree after he reacted to the wound by covering it up with his hand. Then he rejoins his accomplices and they take their captives away, probably in another car that was hidden somewhere."

"Correct. This means that most likely there was at least four maybe five of them. There's a high probability that they had weapons of some sort on them, from the stances they held were looking at large men with heavy semi automatics one of them may have held a rifle of some sort as well."

"In other words, the kind of people that Robin sometimes has trouble with, but if he lets himself be what e truly is, he's capable of taking down."

"Yes, Robin could take them down easily. But, I'm afraid as Tim Drake, he won't risk being seen taking down these men unless he's sure no one watching. And if he is as smitten with this new girl, as I have gathered from both Oracle's and your reactions to his capture, I think we should proceed with the utmost caution and be prepared for the likelihood that he won't be able to help us."

"Great, so much for making this a simple night of hunting down the bad guys. You might want to be ready for the signal, cause with a double strike there's sure to be some people wanting answers."

"Were watching it, and we'll find out what's going on." Oracle's voice piped up over the speaker.

"So what should the rest of us do while your searching the data base?"

"Have Selina look into all of the known people connected to Gotham city's occult, and see if they know who this mystery woman is. Also have Huntress continue her investigations amongst the mafias, the sooner we find the children the safer I think the city will be."

"Yeah I can just imagine all of those crime lords' reactions," Nightwing said, "they'll probably be suspicious of everyone they meet or have met in the pass month or two probably be more than willing to bite each others heads off to. Too bad were the good guys other wise we could just sit back and let them all kill each other off while looking for their kids." He sounded almost wistful as he considered the moral obligation that they faced, on one hand they could go and let the underworld go into a brief panic and let them kill each other off eliminating several key players in several of the criminal organizations one of the problems with that plan would be the power vacuum that would be left over. On the other hand the ruthlessness of these men meant that they wouldn't care how many innocent bystanders were hurt during their fighting and killing and because they had each in their own ways sworn to protect the citizens of Gotham from the criminals of the city.

"Oracle, I want you continue searching for anything that might be wrong with the information that we have about the blood work on this." He held the slab of bark up and inspected the fingerprints on it.

"And if these guys are in the database? Then what will it mean in relation to the things we found out so far."

"If your referring to the demon hunter, then I will request that Wonder Woman or someone else involved in magic come and inspect the situation, before I deal with her and her unorthodox methods."

"You heard Alfred though Bruce," Dick, argued at his friend. "If the girl is as powerful as he thinks, then she might be more than even you can handle."

"We'll see." Batman said turning back to his work, "if you just want to discuss the merits of listening to Alfred on this then why don't you at least research the girl. There may be something we missed, for all we know, all of these children were connected to the occult, and Tim may have just been got caught up in it all by accident."

"Alright." Nightwing said turning towards the console he began typing as fast as he could.

"Lets see," he said as he glanced at the screen before he began reciting the words in front of him. "Born: Dawn N. Summers, to Hank and Joyce Summers, who divorced in 1996. The father is currently somewhere in Spain while the mother is dead. "

"Dead?" Oracle asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, brain tumor. It seems the doc's went and made a misdiagnosis after a surgery. She had a few weeks before she died."

"Sounds tough."

"According to this she died sometime in the afternoon before the older sister had come home from the local college."

"What about the girl?"

"Right, she's a former resident of L.A. then Sunnydale, wow." he said quietly.

"Something else you want to share with us?" Batman asked from his seat.

"Uh yeah Sunnydale California had a death toll greater than any Gotham toll for the last twenty years." Batman stiffened at that and Catwoman's eyes widened in surprise.

"Odd. Sunnydale is only a small town with only one school and one library correct?"

"Yeah, but it also had something like nine different cemeteries because the death rate was so high out there. Back to our girl though she has spent her last few months traveling in Europe. She's the younger sister, and current ward to a Buffy," he snorted at the name, "Anne, Summer's." He whistled quietly, "I thought the death rate was impressive, Dawn Summers has nothing on her record, except some shoplifting bans from the local shopping center, and a few notes by the principal about her. But when you take a look at big sis's record, your amazed that she turned out all right."

"How so?"

"Well, the elder Summer's has one of the weirdest criminal records that I've ever seen for a girl like her."

"What do you mean, like her?"

"Well, she seems like your average sweet, ditsy, blonde, California girl, till the age of fifteen, nearly sixteen, then its like she hit a real rough spot, course it may have been partially influenced by her parents divorce in the same year. She has multiple counts of arson, burglary, murder, destruction of public and private property, brawling, a few counts of terrorism, one weapons violation, she was caught with a rocket launcher at the mall it seems, was accused once of impersonating a governmental employee and at least two counts of resisting arrest. Seems like she'll fit right in at Gotham with a colorful history like hers, if even only half of the stuff is true."

"Any known accomplices?"

"Yeah, several in fact. You really sure you want to hear all of this." Nightwing looked up from the screen he was staring at to look at his teacher.

"Yes, Batman nodded as he continued to examine the blood sample, "it could pertain to the investigation."

"All right I tried to warn you though." Nightwing joked as he began to read from the file. "She had three main accomplices, Rupert Giles, currently in London, England he and another man by the name of Ethan Rayne were questioned for the deaths of several people several years ago when he went by the alias of Ripper, Rayne is currently in a military prison, Giles is also wanted for questioning for the disappearances of several girls all over the U.S and Europe, ranging from fifteen to nineteen most of their guardians were found dead usually stabbed to death, and destruction of property, Alexander L. Harris, goes by the nickname Xander, currently in Gotham as a student in architecture, brawling, and at least three counts of stealing governmental property usually heavy weapons and explosives, impersonating a United States soldier but was never charged, and destruction of public and private property, Willow Rosenberg wanted for destruction of property, and questioning for the deaths of Warren Ward killed in the nearby woods after he shot the Rosenberg's lover Tara McClay, and the death of Jonathan, no last name, who died a few months afterwards in the basement of the high school and was a known friend of Ward's, she also has been charged with brawling, Winifred Burkle though the last visual sighting of her was a few months ago people believe she is still in L.A working at Wolfram and Hart, she's wanted for questioning on the disappearance of a local professor, brawling, resisting arrest, and destruction of public and private property. Cordelia Chase, brawling and destruction of private and public property, whereabouts unknown, last seen in a coma during some sort of spiritual gathering in L.A, Riley Finn, no obvious criminal record, last seen in south America has a military commission. Charles Gunn L.A wanted for grand theft auto, brawling, destruction of property, used to be the head of some type of gang in L.A and is currently working as a lawyer at Wolfram and Hart at the L.A firm, Liam Angel O'Connell, A.K.A Angelus, currently in L.A formerly ran Angel Investigations is now the CEO of the law firm Wolfram and Hart branch in L.A, more counts of brawling, resisting arrest, and destruction of private and public property, William Spike, currently in L.A, several counts of brawling, destruction of public property and private property, multiple driving violations, and indecent exposure,. Faith Wilkins, London, England wanted for the murders of the deputy mayor of Sunnydale, a professor of volcanics and a pimp in L.A, torture, resisting arrest, stealing, indecent exposure, destruction of public and private property, wanted for questioning on the disappearance of former mayor Wilkens, whose fortune she has recently inherited, breaking out of jail, and brawling, Daniel Osborne a.k.a Oz, Tibet brawling and destruction of property, and speeding, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, L.A, wanted for brawling, resisting arrest, and destruction of property, Robin Wood, Cleveland, former principle of Sunnydale high is teaching at a small private school in Cleveland multiple counts of brawling and property damage. Tara McClay deceased, some girl named Kendra, no last name with a few charges of brawling in various cities, deceased, Anya Jenkins, A.K.A Anyanaka, tax fraud, brawling and destruction of property, Deceased."

"The elder Summer's girl also has several government files are on her as well." He said narrowing his eyes, "Either she knows something really important or she's extremely dangerous."

"Probably a little bit of both from what we've seen of the files that we can get at right now."

"Yeah, and it will take time to crack through all these files, even for you Oracle. That is, if you can even manage to open them all up." He said in an amused voice as he scanned over the list of protected files.

"Is that a challenge flyboy?" He heard the amusement in the cyber hero's voice as she felt her reputation being at stake.

"I wish it was Bab's. Maybe I'm wrong, but this stuff looks like it might be a few levels beyond even your usual work of breaking into, its so far up into the military classified that I don't think even Lois Lane could easily find out what's going on that high up even with all of her connections and sweet talking to Lex and the half a dozen other people that she knows."

"Only one way to find out Boy Wonder, Oracle out."

"Impressive method of getting her to work out those codes." Batman complimented his adopted son.

"Hey what can I say," he said shrugging throwing a lopsided grin over his shoulder, "it's a gift."

"Indeed but be careful how often you try and pull that particular trick or she will find out and knowing her she will make your life extremely difficult."

"I wonder where she might have learned that."

"As fascinating as it to watch you two work and listen to the next generation bat make his corny jokes that were just barley tolerable when he was nine years old and now that he's in his twenties you'd think that he would have gotten better materiel. I think I'll go check on those various contacts of mine who knows what we'll find." Catwoman then pulled a paper sheet from her pocket. "Before I forget here's a list of all the people under my guard that have lost kids as well.

"Man, there even hitting some of the pimps up for money?" Nightwing asked in surprise at this tidbit of information. So whoever is doing this is actually spreading I mean there's got to be about a dozen kids on this list.

"Very well." Batman said his voice betraying no emotion. "After we're done here Nightwing and I will talk to the commissioner about the kidnappings and find out who else may have been taken."

"Master Bruce." Alfred's voice came over the intercom.

"Yes." Alfred Batman asked keeping a neutral tone. The only time he had felt this hurt by Alfred was when the man had left his services for a short while. It was a time that they never spoke of.

"Master Drake is on his way over here evidently the police have just informed him that that Master Timothy has been captured and naturally he has come to the conclusion that his extracurricular activities with you are in some way to blame."

"Great that's just what we need how about I talk with the Commissioner while you talk to Mister Drake."

"As much as I would rather not I'm afraid that is the only choice that we have at the moment seeing as how Drake won't believe Alfred that he doesn't know." Batman pulled his cowl off letting it fall against his back showing the hard chisled face of Bruce Wayne one of the richest men on the planet he might have been the richest if he wasn't always having to buy equipment for his nightly crusade. "Have Drake come on down as soon as he gets here, Alfred. I would rather we get this done as fast as possible."

"Very well master Bruce he shall be here in approximately fifteen minutes."

"Thank you Alfred, have you had any luck talking to your associates about the girl we saw tonight?"

"I'm afraid not master Bruce I spent most of my time trying to talk Master Drake down enough so that he would be reasonable when he arrived here instead of a repeat of his first time here when he was shown the Bat-cave." The butler said reminding them of the time that Drake had come by waving a gun and had threatened to tell the world who the members of the secretive Bat family were if his son had not quit immediately he now allowed Tim to fight but with reservations.

"You know I really hate doing this and since Montoya and Bullock aren't there anymore it kind of ruins the fun of going down there anymore." Nightwing griped.

"It could be worse master Dick they could have allowed several of the detectives from Bludhaven transfer over here."

"That is an image I could do without Alfred." Nightwing said as he headed toward the motorcycle he had used to ride down in on. C'mon Batgirl I'll give you a lift to someplace you can start your patrol." Sure Mr. Drake knew who they were but that didn't mean they had to acknowledge that so they just remained as scarce as possible especially since Drake was likely to come in yelling again and right now emotions were running high enough for all of them.

"Stop by the bell tower on your way back." Batman said "tell Oracle to get Canary back in Gotham as fast as possible if this new crime wave has hit so many people then we'll need as many people as possible for finding the children and for damage control till they are all found."

"Sure thing." He said as he revved the engine before disappearing into the night.

"Don't seem so disappointed." Alfred said trying to lighten the mood knowing that sometimes his master took his anger out on some of the oddest people and taking the anger and betrayal he felt about his own silence about the suspicions he had about the girl they had seen tonight.

Batman grinned slightly. "I will try, Alfred. Escort mister Drake down here if he's by himself."

Of course master Bruce the intercom clicked off leaving the giant cave silent except for the fluttering of bats and the hum of machinery for several minutes till Drake came barging down the stairs.

"Wayne, what the hell did you do with my kid this time that he had to go and get himself captured or as the cops are calling it kidnapped."

"Didn't he tell you what he was doing mister Drake?" Bruce asked as calmly as he could from the main seat in front of the super computer hoping the delays in answering the man would not endanger any lives.

"Yeah he gave me some story about having a date with some new girl from his school like I was going to believe in that after he's been kidnapped."

"Actually after he was captured I found out that he was not out on patrol but really did have a date."

"Really and did it happen to be a date with danger or one that you arranged so that you could track him when he got caught?"

"Neither Mr. Drake. I was in fact kept out of the loop about this date so that I wouldn't run a background check on the girl like I have nearly completed."

"And what, did this girl, like, not exist and only appeared because of who he is known to hang around with."

"No according to the evidence it looks like this all part of something else."

"What do you mean something else?" Drake growled wanting to jump over to the silent man as he casually spoke about his son's life.

"With the information that we have so far been able to gather we have been able to determine that the kidnapping while not random has nothing to do with his time as Robin but because he is the son of a rich man." Came the cool reply.

"What, you mean to tell me that Tim got captured because of who I am?" The shocked voice said as Drake paled taking an astonished step back away from the silent man.

"Yes." Batman replied doing his best trying not to sound too smug as the revelation hit the man behind him.

"So what are we going to do about this then, Bruce, or what are YOU going to do about it."

"I am going to hunt down the kidnappers and save both Tim and the other hostages that are currently numbering at about 48 children from various people with either high connections to the government or underworld or access to large amounts of money."

"Fine and I have to stay home with my wife and act like a trusting parent that the cops will do the job. Who's the girl he went out with?"

"She is a schoolmate by the name of Dawn Summers." Was the bat's simple reply.

"Dawn? As in the sister to that blond girl that avoids cameras like the plague and has friends all over? The girl that owns that hotel and motel franchise, the girl that has been seen partying all over the city at night and going to college classes during the day and at dusk she has all of her business meetings, that girl."

"Yes perhaps you should try and distract her. Hopefully she won't try and do anything rash under your calm hand."

"Maybe, but I don't want my kid's clothes being stuck in a glass case like the last one's." Drake said nodding toward the case that held a robin uniform the costume of Jason Todd Tim's predecessor who had died fighting the Joker. After hearing himself the man looked down at his feet slightly ashamed over his reaction to his son's dissapearance that he had gone so far as to mock the uniform that stood almost lovingly in its case having read Tim's War Journals he new that the costume belonged to another boy about Tim's age who had died in an explosion a few years ago.

"I pray that it won't." Batman said as he waved the concerned parent away and turned back to the large monitor glad that the mask he wore hid his emotions from the rest of the world.


	10. ch 10

Ch 10  
Sorry that the chap is short will make up for it in the next one.

Well here's more

Well **codewarriorrac**e in answer to your question sure Batman can take Supes and Wondy down heck he at one point had plans to take down the entire J.L.A down! And when that crazy wannabe immortal stole the plans he nearly succeeded in destroying the group. But that's only because he's done his research on each and every single one of them before he could really win and since he was sans info on the Slayer Batman might get hurt cause all in all a slayer is nearly on the level of Bane strength wise I think I think that's right anyway I'm not real knowledgeable on the D.C verse so I might have her strength higher than it should be if so cansomeone give me a good example of who her strength level is like in relationship to the D.C verse. As for the bats reaction to intruders in his town it ought to be intresting. Oh yeah and another reason is when someone messes with his family he gets real irrrational heck supes had to stop him from killing Joker after the clown killed Jason.

Sorry if my sentence structure doesn't meet the goodness you think it should but **petervI** already have a beta what more do you want me to do? Other than learn to punctuate better that is.

Well **Damia-Queen of the Gypsi's** Sure Faith might get along with Catwoman mainly because they're both products of the street giving them a kind of link to each other I'm thinking that the two bad girls of the D.C verse along with Faith might get together and make a kind of odd friendship I mean we can't forget all about the Huntress now right? The person who doesn't really play completely by the Batman's rules but is still pretty good at what she does despite her rougher edges. Sound anything like a certain slayer who felt like she was always on the outside of things?

Oh no you don't **mystjade**! You have been pushing for Angel to show up! You do not just change your mind at the last moment just because you realize how many characters there are, I mean it. Besides I would have to rewrite parts of Ch 11. So ex nay on the no Angel besides I need him to do the whole Andrew bashing thing the way I think it should be done so there, you just take that comment back ya got it! Oh yeah and I was just planning onAngeland maybe having one of the others join him.P.S You made a teacher cry? SWEETNESS!

Am going as fast as possible **speakout** but a little thing called school is slowing me down.

Glad you liked the waqy I'm writing the Bat charachters **dogbertcarroll**

Oh yeah b4 I forget Don't own nothin And a lot of the good spelling credit goes to SIN who has been a real help.

"I simply love the way you've redecorated, Jacob. The whole dark, mysterious, and somewhat spooky magic shop does give the place a more interesting feel to it." Catwoman said practically purring as she walked out of the dark shadows that she had been hiding in aand almost casually approached the first of many people in her search.

She knew that if she roughed up enough of the antique and magic dealers that eventually she would find someone willing to talk about the mystery girl. The real trick of it would be finding someone willing to talk and who actually had the vaguest idea about what was going on. So her first stop had been Jacob Urlare, an Italian who ran and owned the small shop she was currently in, 'The Mystic Eye'. Urlare was of average height, had a normally dark complexion, though it seemed a little paler than it usually did, his dark hair also seemed filled with less of its usual shiny luster as she looked at the man before her grinning like a idiot, because one of the sexiest women he had ever heard of had decided to grace the small shop.

"I'm so glad you approve," The shopkeeper said sarcastically from his spot near a display case of supposedly mystic healing stones, that would heal most wounds to the body and soul.

Despite being slightly amazed at the person before him he was still wary of her, after all she was making an entirely new reputation for herself along side her old one. In the past she had the rep as one of the best thieves in the business, the only one who ever really made the Bat hesitate but now her rep said she was one of the Bat's people, and you don't become a junior Bat, or whatever she was, since only senior members were allowed their own territory to guard. Like that Nightwing guy who actually had the neighboring town to protect, while the Bird boy and the Spoiler both had routes of their own but they were along the edges of the Bat's hunting grounds. So unless you'er really good and have a great rep or the respect of several of the Bat kids and even then the respect only goes as far as the old man Bat allows. Mostly because he and the Huntress were still feuding about things that happened before the whole No-Mans-Land incident a few years back when she had been a relatively new player in the whole crime fighting method and some of her habits she was still trying to break like her whole need to kill people that broke the law.

"So tell me Jacob, what have you heard?" She asked putting on the most charming smile she could muster at him.

"Heard about what?" Jacob was a bit different than most of the crazy shop owners that ran these types of places for one he wasn't in his late seventies, but was in his mid thirties instead, he also was a pretty good fence as well when he wasn't trying to play with magic.

"The magic guardian that just came to town, some girl."

"She have a name like the rest of you underwear wearing crazies, or am I just supposed to know, cause I own this grand establishment." He gestured to the various bookshelves around the room showing all of the books and odd weapons on display. "So you think you got a monster slayer or something and you want me to give you a name for it eh? What's the matter all of your magic wielding buddies get stuck in traffic or something?" He smirked at the heroine, "so who is this supposed super chick you think I should know."

"We don't have a name yet, but a friend said she might be something called the Slayer. What can you tell me about that?"

"A slayer is in the city?" The already pale man actually seemed to pale even more at this news his eyes narrowed suspiciously, "Are you absolutely sure about that?" Taking her hesitance to answer as a yes he began speaking more to himself than to the heroine standing by his covered window. "Damn it! Something must finally have gotten to the main one Estivo, he said momentarily switching to his native Italian, "unless it was that other one the crazy one. Course with all of the crazy rumors going around these days it could be the main one with the city and its unique abilities having been destroyed and all. And I had really wanted to take a vacation there next year to."

"Who are they?"

"What, You don't know? Well don't expect me to tell you kitty cat. I got things to do, like find a hole to hide under, and staying as far away from your kind as possible."

"Wrong choice Jacob, I need that info. So how about you tell me and then you can go hide in whatever hole it is that will make you feel safe."

"Listen Cat, the country probably ain't safe for me anymore, but maybe if I get off of the island before she hears about me she won't find out about me. I hear Orlando is really nice this time of year anyway, true there's a tad bit more sunny than I'm really looking forward to but I don't really have a whole lot of other options unless I find some other place to work from."

"Listen Jacob, you have about three seconds before I tear you a new face unless you tell me all you can about this girl."

"Hell, that would be preferable than having a slayer at me. I'd rather take on the bat than try and take that girl on at least with him I actually stand a chance. Besides I already have two faces don't need another one thanks for the offer though, now get lost, I got to talk to my lawyer, and a few other people that need to know she's here before I can disappear into the night and all of that stuff."

"C'mon Jacob you know that its not that simple. Just tell me and we won't have problems, you know I scratch your back you scratch mine." She said teasingly hoping to get the coward to stay.

"No can do Catwoman, now scram." He said dismisivley as he began to unlock various things from his displays.

"No." She said shaking her head letting her hands rest easily on her belt as she now glared at the shop owner.

"Move Cat, I don't have time for this." He angrily replied to the feline obsessed woman.

"Make it." She challenged he simply ignored her and continued unlocking cases now picking up some of the smaller more valuble trinkets he owned. "Your funeral then," she shrugged, then expertly swung her whip at the fence's legs intending to entangle the man's legs and hang him from a cross beam like a side of salted meat. But the best plans sometimes fall apart.

"Is that really the best you got?" he asked as he held the end of the whip in his empty hand, grinning at the surprised woman before him. He yanked hard on the weapon throwing the woman into a display shelf behind him. "Tsk, tsk," he shook his head almost sadly, "this is the mighty Catwoman? Maybe you should stick to robbing houses little girl, it's a hell of a lot safer than trying to beat on the thugs and lowlifes that the Bat takes care of regularly." He acted like he was trying to give her some advice that would really help her.

"Sorry if you don't like the way I do things anymore Jacob, but you are going to tell me about this girl even if I have to beat the snot out of you five different ways and there'll still be blood left over."

"The only blood that will be spilt this night is yours Catwoman, because I have been struck down and made more powerful than you could possibly imagine. And no one will be able to save you from me if I were to decide to kill you not even your precious new friends."

"What, you think that before I teamed up with the white hats that I didn't have any skills of my own? C'mon I dodged Batman and his little family for years, and only got caught one time really. That is if were counting the number of times that I had to go to jail. And another thing what's with the movie quotes?"

"It matters not Catwoman," Jacob said sneering at the woman ignoring her question, "leave me be now, I have things to take care of and I can't waste my time talking with you over the finer points of how you conduct or used to conduct your various types of business."

"Oh no Jacob, your not getting out of this that easy especially not after you threw me into your wall." Catwoman grinned as she shook the broken bits of glass off of her body as she stood up the two waited for the last bits of the glass to finally rattle to the floor before resuming their conversation.

"Hey c'mon babe, its not like that's never happened to ya before." The man rationalized as he looked at the woman before him almost bored as he tried to finish emptying his displays of the more valuable pieces that they held.

"Whatever creep but I will enjoy beating the tar out of you. Catwoman grinned as she curled her hands into fists.

"I said to leave." He growled, his eyes glowed yellow momentarily startling his opponent enough that he was able to grab the nimble thief by the collar and throw her out through the glass storefront window and into the street. "And stay out you mangy cat!" He bellowed gleefully.

"All right that was definitely a new one not to mention a bit humiliating." She mumbled, picking herself backup out of the street she quickly brushed glass fragments off of her body again. "And that was definitely not the kind of guy I usually deal with, but something a tad bit different. Maybe Batman will know what's causing perfectly normal humans to become super humans over short periods of time." She grumbled as she remembered that the man that had just thrown her out was supposed to be a fairly slow boxer not some super fast, strong man, with glowing eyes. She silently jumped to the roof across the street from the store planning on watching him for a few more minutes. Not at all what she remembered of him, heck she had strung him up before a dozen times, and he had never given her any kind of trouble before. Then the one night he does fight back he kicks her butt all over his store without even trying it seems.

Sighing she wiped away some of the blood from one of the shallow cuts she received from slamming through two glass barriers and reaches for the small radio unit connected to her black costume. "Oracle do you read me?"

"Yes Catwoman, I can hear you. What's the problem?"

"Someone needs to watch the magic shop I'm at, not only did the guy know who the Slayer was, but he actually threw me out without even trying and before that he caught my whip and threw me into the wall."

"So we got another new super human on the radar in a matter of hours Batman is not going to like that. Who was it?"

"A fence I sometimes use, he owns a magic shop."

"Ah yes one of those small timers you use, from time to time. Goes by the name of Jacob, actually believes most of the magic stuff he sells on the side and is said to have some rather odd connections in the city."

"Yeah that's the one."

"Well I'll send some one to look at it."

"Well you better hurry then girl, cause the minute I said slayer, he started packing that's part of why I got kicked out so fast he moved at super human speed had enhanced strength and was really arrogant."

"What? Arrogance in a bad guy? Say it isn't so." Oracle mocked teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up." Catwoman said into her mike. You weren't the one being on the wrong side of a cat and mouse game. And since when did Gotham become a hotbed for meta-humans? Because this is like the second person to show up as a super human, did I wake up in Metroplis or something this morning and just have some crazy set of contacts placed on my face to confuse things for me?"

"Good point, I'll look into it but something has to be causing all these super humans to start showing up all over the place. The real question will be what is it? Some item that's been relocated here or is it something different like maybe a magic doorway to some crazy Alice and wonderland world."

"You're the computer genius here girl, I'm afraid this ones all on you but I will check in with some of my other contacts just in case. Course if it is Alice and wonderland we know who we'll find at the end of that particular slime trail."

"True but according to my documents the Hatter is currently stuck in Arkhyme at the moment."

"All right thanks I am so out of here now though," Catwoman then sprang from the roof to another roof and swung away on hoping that her next informant was a bit more useful then the last one had been and a whole lot less painful as well. At least for her that is she wouldn't mind getting in a few shots at someone after her humiliating defeat.


	11. ch 11

CH 11

Sorry about the delay folks but my beta is no longer available so the english may not be so good sorry about that.

**General Mac** am trying

Very perceptive **doggerbertcarroll**

**Codewarriorace** Um last I checked Batman already knows about the craziness that is demons remember Jason Blood has been mentioned and he turns into that really weird demon that I can't even spell. As for telling about the other stuff sure he needs to mention the kind of danger they are getting into that's part of why he's trying to call the council remember.

**Damia - Queen of the Gypsi's** you and me both my friend the shadow hero has always been one of my favorites as well and yes you did forget to mention the Huntress but this chapter should make sure you don't do that again.

**mystjade** I am working on getting the king of brood glad you thought my characters were good.

**Jaspis **Glad you like the bio's I'm adding in. As for the tax fraud I just thought it went with her character too much just much to pass up.

**Darknesssoonfollows** I am trying to put the pedal to the medal

Helen Bertirelli smiled grimly as she hugged her uncle, the closest blood relative that she had left that might actually be able to say he loved her like a daughter as she stepped out of her car. "It is good of to come during you this time of trouble my dear _sobrino._"The old man said sadly his voice while sad his eyes held a cool calculating look of vengeance for the people that had wronged him the same fire magnified by ten as the day he learned of the betrayal. "I know that my son is important to you in more ways than I think than even I know for some reason. I hope that he does not come back as changed as you did after your own abduction and pray that the spark in his spirit will not be crushed and that I will not lose that part of him that your father once told me he felt that you had lost."

"Anthony has an interesting spark uncle, and I think if it's guided well he could become a great person someday." Helena said trying her best to keep her smile but talk about her father and mother always left her with conflicting emotions, on one side they were her family they had made sure that she had all the things that she could have wanted they even gave her a large amount of love something that they didn't have to really do but they had none the less. On the other hand though her father had, had the blood of several people on his hands before his own death, it was a often confusing problem that she new that she would have to face one of these days till then she would just have to keep on fighting the gangs. There was also the small fact that the man that she had spent eight years of her life growing up with was not really her father but a crime lord that she and her uncle had arranged to have murdered she since her birth father had been the only member of the Italian mafia knowing her identity and had tried to blackmail her into working for him. Her uncle had been sent to jail after arranging the man's death just as she had planned taking down two members for the price of one. Unfortunately the plan had succeeded in one method only her birth father was dead but her uncle had managed to buy his way out of the court but he had lost just enough of his power to lose his place as the godfather's right hand man one of the other men was able to take the power from him something that always made Maria his oldest daughter extremely angry whenever she thought of the power her father used to have. I hope I never have to see that slightly bloated excuse of a cousin of mine again. She thought remembering the last time the two of them had spoken her darling cousin had insulted her family.

"He will always be respected." The don said smiling at his niece before handing her off to one of the nearby men under his command one of the usual large men with a lot of muscles bulging under his suit. The giant obviously had been kept waiting for the orders and knowing her family she wouldn't be surprised to find out that the man was now her permanent guard for the duration of her stay. The man proceeded to escort her into the large house that a number of the family crime lords were meeting at to discuss the problem that they were having. Helena had only been allowed to join the meeting because of her firsthand knowledge of being a captive and might have a point of view that the others didn't have but other than that she was mainly just there to be seen and not heard. Of course she was also here to see and listen as well she even had a small recording device in the hair clip she was wearing. She still couldn't believe that Batman had actually urged her to find something for them to use that for the moment he couldn't care less what she did to her family or any of the other mafia's just find something that they could use. If her cousin and Robin's lives did not possibly hang on the line she might have been amused by the way things were going on tonight, the high and mighty Batman had actually asked for her help well not him per se but they were his orders which was just about the same thing in most peoples book.

"We'll find Anthony don't worry about that," her escort said grinning at Helen unaware that this woman had actually beaten him to a pulp and had him thrown into jail two years ago as the well known mafia hunting Huntress. " Sides that he is one tough kid, just don't worry so much Helena when we find the creeps that took off with your cuz we'll teach them what it means to mess with your family."

"You may believe that Louie," Helena smiled sweetly at the man, "but I've been in his shoes before remember?" She reminded the man who when he was not running errands for her uncle was the primary bodyguard for her cousin. The large man had taken his once a month day off when the boy had been taken the man who subbed for him had been found later in the Gotham city morgue registered as a John Doe had been found in an alley dead upon arrival is what the report had said that had been nearly five days ago. There was still no ransom note though some of the people who had lost their children had, had to wait six days while some of the parents had only had to wait about three hours. With no clear pattern to the system that the messages were left that now when a child disappeared the security was tightened in hopes of catching the messenger who always left a hand written note someplace that the concerned parent was bound to see.

"Yeah but that was before the super folks were all out there. Well they were out there," he amended after a small pause of thought. "But nowhere near the numbers they're in today you know. And we also have a lot better chance electronically of finding him as well. Why the word is that the boss is going to go and hire one of those crazies that the Flash is always fighting to break the kid out when they finally find him like that mirror guy, or the weather dude, or maybe one of the local super goons from around here I heard a rumor that says he was considering contacting Freeze or maybe even Bane for a little bit of work."

"Surely my uncle would not try and deal with Bane. Why the first time he came to Gotham he nearly succeeded in taking over the entire Gotham underworld." Helena placed her hand against her chest like she had seen several women who were terrified thanking the school system for all the drama classes that she had watched while they practiced.

"Well another rumor is they might hire some hotshot P.I and his friends from out of town who are supposed to be really good with disappearances and such, there's supposed to be more about that tonight."

"How far out of town is out of town? Do they mean someone from Keystone, Metropolis, New York, or some little bity town with a old timer who has the myth of being some type of Sherlock Holmes, being called out of retirement?"

"Nah," the man shook his head in amusement, "I think the guy's from one of the cities less known for its super beings and more for its movie stars."

"Oh joy, another detective, that's just what this city needs more of." Helena said bitterly not needing to fake any emotion this time as a frown appeared on her face.

"Hey the boss has to try something don't he? I mean were talking about his only kid and with the way the boss earns a lot of his money and stuff we can't expect a lot of help from the Bat you know." The thug said defensively towards his employer despite his friendship with the lovely schoolteacher.

"Forgive me Louie," Helena smiled as well as she could at the moment. "But with all of the detectives this city already has does he really want more detectives in the city? What if they tried to set up shop or something in the city after all of this mess is finally taken care of?"

"Ya got a point there," the man said nodding. "But if this guy can help do we really have the right to tell the boss that it's a bad idea." He led her through a pair of wide doors that led toward the ballroom where the steady mutter of multiple conversations could be heard. "Besides the guy is the CEO of one of the Law firms we deal with a lot. He just works out of a different branch."

Helena smiled as she saw the dilemma the guard faced as he put forth his reasoning in bringing the outsider onto the case, a better protector for her cousin would be hard to find. She frowned for a moment as she considered that thought she also knew that what made him so great a guardian for her cousin could also make her uncle kill him later on if he argued whether or not her cousin should be allowed into the world of crime, she would have to be careful and watch out for the man she told herself. "Would you like to talk a little bit more Louie?" She asked nodding to the side away from the big heavy doors, he nodded and the both sat in a pair of chairs that rested near the doors and continued their conversation. "Don't worry Louie I'm sure it will be all right and then you'll be off of your escort duty and back to protecting my little cousin again."

"I sure hope so ma'm one thing having to wear a suit again is pure torture," he unconsciously pulled on the tight collar he was wearing unaware that he was now the one who was being comforted for his own worries about the young teen. "When I'm with the kid I can for the most part dress in jeans and a shirt, or slacks and a sports coat, but with the don its all this shity formal wear crud like suits. Not to mention that the kid is actually a lot of fun to be around." He admitted what Helena had already guessed the heavy guard one of the best shots in her uncles employ had fallen for her cousin and would do anything to protect the boy she idly wondered if that included lying the mafia and if so how far it would go before he faltered.

" But why not make a deal with the police, if my uncle is really so worried about Anthony?"

"Their useless fools, is why." A stern female voice said as an elegantly dressed woman with high cheekbone ands hair that was once a rich brown but was now becoming speckled with gray and hard brown eyes, walked out of the large room. Glareing at the two of them as if she had caught them doing something they would feel guilty about. "Besides the moment the police found the boy, they would try and find a way to use him against his father and while your uncle would do the right thing it would cost him severely to make such a sacrifice. It is the family weakness I fear." The woman nodded sadly, "while outside he may seem like his old self on the inside the ones that truly know him as much as one can claim to know the don that is will know how much it will hurt him and how worried he is without knowing the fate of his son. He is becoming increasingly violent when he decides to wake up and pay attention to the business."

"My uncle truly knows the means of sacrifice for the greater good of the family then." Helena said quietly to herself. Before turning to the woman, "Thank you aunt that makes me feel so much better for Anthony's chance of survival if I know that he will only be sacrificed as a last resort."

"Niece." the woman returned nodding to the undercover vigilante coldly. "Try and behave while you are here my dear, and you Louie please refrain from talking about our operations to her she does not really need to know."

"Awe c'mon ma'm she may not do anything in the family business but she's got as much right to know as a bunch of other folks. Besides she's part of the family."

"Of course your right but perhaps you should see if my husband approves of the coward to know these things."

"Listen aunt," Helena said her eyes narrowing into dangerous slits, "just because I chose a different life style than the rest of the family doesn't mean that I am afraid and if you ever imply such a thing again I will have to hurt you, do we understand each other?"

"Yes whatever you say dear." The woman said trying to sound unimpressed by the steel in the other woman's eyes and tone showing her linage. "Come in now though, and Louie try and keep what you know to yourself next time please."

"Yes ma'm," the big burly man said tipping his hat at the intimidating woman before him, before escorting his charge into the ballroom. The ballroom had several small tables set up all around the room to accommodate several people waiters and waitress stood by taking orders from delicate menus while she had seen her family put on grander feasts they were few evidently there was more than just the case of the missing children to be addressed tonight which in a small way explained why she had been invited to this particular party. It was the quarterly party she realized belatedly a party that she was always invited to but never attended out of loathing for most of the pigs in this little mafia family get together. Had she known this is what was going to happen she would have tried to get the Butterfly to join her despite there differences in opinion she thought very highly of the man who wore a mask that appeared to show a face without any features whatsoever. He had been willing to help her when nobody else had been willing to risk anything for her after all. Except maybe Robin when he had persuaded Oracle to help him find out everything their was on the Bertirelli family and it's last surviving member to carry the name that long ago had invoked fear into thousands of people in Gotham twenty years ago.

Helena smiled on the large man's arm as she looked around the large ballroom that had several tables set about it a number of people most of them in some way related to the five families that made up Gotham's Italian mafia were sitting down ready to begin the talks on how to not only protect the children that were safe for the moment but who would have the audacity to capture the children that had already been taken. Helena nodded politely to the few people that she knew and new her back she saw her half brother Mario Cassamento. She smiled inwardly to herself as she saw that some of the surprised faces at seeing her there she was known for occasionally coming to a wedding or something but never had she come to meeting and they were unsure if this meant that she had been in training to takeover where her supposed father had left off or if she was here for some other reason personally she was just as curious if not more so than the others about why she had been invited here to this meeting of the family and some of their allies. True she cared for nephew but that was not enough reason to bring her here and the flimsy excuse she had been given that she was wanted for her insight on how the children might be acting was ludicrous as well since many of the men had watched the reactions of various people captured and cut off from the rest of the world they had better experts than her and such better at explaining what happened. The facts she had gathered so far were that whoever was behind these kidnappings she was aware that there was some sort f connection between the loss of the mafia children and the children of the other wealthy families she just didn't know what it was and that was aggravating her almost as much as Batman telling her how she was allowed to patrol the city. She noted that whoever had planned the seating arrangements had not been foolish since the Inzerillos and the Cassamento's had been separated so that the Beretti Panessas separated them.

"Well, well what have we here?" a silky accented voice said asked inwardly groaning Helena turned to one of the Russian mafia leaders. The man was wearing an Armani cut in the latest fashion he was in many ways your typical Russian Blonde hair blue eyes a little over six feet a sneer that stretched across his mouth and wide shoulders like a boxer or football player. His eyes did not hold the hardness of the Bertirelli family but had more of a cocky light that told the world that he thought he could have anything or anyone he wanted with just a snap of his fingers or a wave of his hand.

"Karl," she said nodding, "it has been a while."

"Not enough though if I'm reading your expressions right." Karl said as he smirked at her his eyes roving up and down her body letting all that saw them know that he was mentally undressing the woman before him. "But I personally am glad to see you." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and looked like he was about to tell Louie to take a hike when he caught the warning glare that Helena gave him. His grin lessened at that but he nodded at the request for her guard to remain with her.

"So who have you lost?" Helena asked breaking the silence that came over them.

"My father's godson was taken." Karl said shrugging unconcerned. "If it weren't for the fact that none of our usual methods of finding the guy aren't working we wouldn't be here but since we are having those kinds of troubles we decided to work together and figure it all out with your bunch. Last we heard from him was that he was on his way to a meeting to speak to some of the new gangs that had formed in our territory.

"I did not realize that the boy had been given any responsibilities as of yet." Helena said trying to sound even slightly interested.

" It had just recently become his duty to convince the gangs to stay away from certain businesses that our family has interests in. Depending on the people he talks to depends on how many of the men he takes with him. There were three men with him that night they were all found dead in an ally someone had broken all of their necks too, that had actually been a surprise," He admitted "but who knows there might be a way to make a few deals on the side with this whole mess going on."

"Is that all you want here? To please your father and make some side deals?"

"Hell yeah sweetie after all its been a while since we've had the chance to break our quarterly by a large sum and we just might do it this time around, plus I've been given some bullets that I'm supposed to deliver personally to the kidnappers or at least see to it that the kid sends them."

"So you're supposed to be both enforcer and rescuer then."

"Yep so who did you lose?"

"My cousin was captured Karl," Helena snapped her patience already frayed by the scum in front of her, "like you already knew, just like you most likely already new that I know nothing of importance here and will be glad to leave so I don't have to deal with insufferable drug lords like you."

"Alrighty then guess the kid means something to you if your getting all upset about his being captured. Now then how about we all go and have ourselves a seat so that we can get on with this little bit of business." He walked back to his table and set down whispering a few things with his father most likely explaining who she was and why he thought she might be here she mused glad that she hadn't needed to generate emotion for the conversation.

"You want I should take care of him ma'm?" The guard asked longingly as he clenched and unclenched his fists in irritation.

"No Louie, he is merely doing what he was raised to do besides with that kind of attitude he's sure to be caught sooner than his family might like. Though if he keeps that superior attitude of his on all of the time then he'll have a bitch to pay to get his life back to where he thinks it should be." Helena displayed a feral grin causing the guard to shiver at the look.

"Remind me to never piss you off cause I don't think you'd let me live long enough to apologize." He joked halfheartedly.

"Don't worry big guy you won't as long as you keep Anthony out of trouble."

"Yes ma'm" he said grinning leading her over to the head of the godfather's table so that she could pay her respects to the patriarch of the Bertirelli family.

"Godfather." she said bowing her head in respect to the man as he looked up from his conversation with another person as she greeted the man who was both the godfather of the five families but also her actual godfather.

"Ah Helena, I'm glad that you decided to join us today. I know that sometimes you have to stay up late and grade papers for all of those young children at your school. I'm glad tonight was not one of those nights after all you might be able to give us some interesting ideas on where to look and how we might best treat the children once we have found them," he took a sip from his wine glass. "I want to make sure that not only do they pay but that we get something out of it because no one messes with the families and gets away with it." The man had the steel in his eyes that all of his other descendants had, only it was sharper. A look that was only rivaled by a handful of the world's defenders and even fewer of its super villains.

"I'm afraid I do not understand godfather, you have many people who are capable of telling you these things and none of the petty thugs around my home would dare approach me no matter what."

"True I will explain it to you later, he grinned wisely at her. "For now I would like you to look at this signature to verify it." He held out a large envelope with several letters and documents he then pulled out a copy of a paper he had and extended it out to her offering her a job for the family depending on what was on that paper could determine on whether a person lived or died herself as well.

"Of course Godfather," she said as she took the letter with her and took Louie's arm again as he escorted her to a table almost hidden in the back where the people who didn't want to be seen could slip in and out of the meeting she knew this was not a snub but merely a way of keeping her out of the way.

"So what's that?" Louie asked as they sat down he took the seat facing the door so if any unwanted people came in he would have a clear shot at them while she sat slightly to his left wishing she had brought her crossbow so that she could cover some of the windows and stage.

"A copy of an old letter," she said curious as she scanned the copy of the letter that had been addressed to her godfather several years ago. If she remembered correctly she had been staying abroad at the time in a kind of hiding to keep her alive. She wondered idly if her family would still have wanted her alive if they knew what she would become because of their infighting. She scanned the contents before swallowing softly as she looked at her godfather what did he know that he wanted a letter more than ten years old confirmed. She waited till the waiter had come before deciding that she was in no condition to make a scene at the moment and that to try and leave after arriving before she had heard the report would be extremely rude so she would have to stay and find out what it was that the old man was up to at least up to the point that she would need to leave lest her alibi that she had worked so hard to mold was shattered.

"Must think that you know or knew the writer," Louie said as the waiter brought him a beer mug and ribs while he brought her a glass of wine and a salad. "Never will understand how you can eat that rabbit food," he said shaking his head, as she ate. "It's got no holding power for ya."

"True but we both have different health standards we live by though so it's not surprising that we have different tastes in our food." she replied no longer really interested in her food.

"Yeah but."

"Their starting." she said waving aside his argument as the first speaker her uncle as a matter of fact stood up and approached the stage.

"Greetings family, and friends" he said his voice betraying no emotion for what he was doing. "Normally we would start this off with a festive mood but sense some of us have lost the heart to enjoy that kind of party I hope you will forgive me when I ask that we begin to go over some of the things that we are here for tonight." He pulled a small folder out of his jacket and began to read the names of five different children" that is the number of people that altogether we have lost my friends and now it is time to hunt down our adversaries and show those son of a bitches what happens when you mess with this family!" The man raised his fist and slammed it down on the lectern, "if we don't do something who knows what will happen to our children. I have already made several deals with men to help me I even went as far as to go and talk with the Wolfram and Hart people! This admission had several people start to get uneasy while they ran illegal businesses all over and regularly had people killed they all had been forced to admit at one time or anther that Wolfram and Hart were not people to go and piss off or to try and pull one over on no matter how good you thought you were and often was more than willing to help with there side deals and had actually assisted in the hiring of the various super powered mercenaries that came through town that the Bat or one of his ilk usually stopped.

"What good is one of their people? They can't even take care of the Batman for us!" One voice said loudly.

"I don't give a damn about the Batman right now. I just want my kid back" was the snarled response.

"All right just want you to remember that all of their great ideas on how to deal with our other problems have ended up being problems."

"Yes but they always manage to get us out of any of the problems that we seem to find ourselves in though don't they?"

"Sure but you never know when they can be a help and when they decide to cause mayhem. And they are excellent people to do business with no matter the odd connections they seem to have, so lets see what they can do maybe they can provide us with a way to find our kids."

"Very well, we shall try it your way but I want it known that I agree under severe reservations to allowing them to interfere with this."

"Very well, your reservations are duly noted and will be remembered unfortunately there is nothing else I have to contribute about what we will do and will now turn this over to someone who has business."

Helena sighed as she quietly dug in her purse for another listening device and then got up to leave. "I'm sorry Louie but I don't think I need to hear any more of what is going to be said."

He smiled at her grimly, "Ah understand ma'm you need any help on getting out or anything?" He had already followed her to the big doors.

"No, I still wish there had more discussion about the kidnappings but I am obviously of no use here so ask my uncle and Godfather not to try and bring me into all of this again please. Oh and please tell the Godfather that the signature is real and not a forgery," she said as she casually leaned her hand against the wall securing the device without notice to an angelic carving in the woodwork.

"Now ma'm we both know that I have to at the very least walk you back to your car or your aunt would have my head used as garbage to be shredded in the disposal." The two grinned at the thought of making the overly bossy woman angry with them if it wouldn't get them in trouble.

"Very well," she agreed as she took his hand and was walked out the door she knew that all she had seen was a formality discussion the real decision had already been made maybe as much as the day before she thought to herself. So why did they think that they needed her to hear the decision? Shrugging inwardly she discussed a few more things with Louie before she got into her car and drove away into the night promising herself that she would be back later or at least the Huntress would be back.

"Well what do you think? She spoke into the transmitter that was hidden in her clothing after she had passed the final security gate.

"I think that Louie should disappear and that you should definitely slap that wannabe killer all over the place till he begs you to stop and then you should give him a good solid shot to the jewels so that he remembers you in a much different light." Came the teasing voice of Oracle.

Helena smirks despite herself at the thought of beating the arrogant Russian all over the place. "I'll consider the part about my Russian friend as for Louie I'd like to at least try something that will help him even if I did manage to throw his butt into jail he has his uses."

"Right as long as he keeps himself away from those little side jobs of his that he likes to goof around with from time to time he'll be okay where he is."

"Yeah but then there's that big if thing isn't there."

"Yep" came the reply as Helena weaved through the heavy Gotham city nightlife traffic that killed almost as many people as the city's various super villains did.

"Anything else I should do? Or should I try and make a few rounds of patrol before I try and get some rest?"

"Mainly were just analyzing the data we have and that's what Bruce and I excel at. So you and Batgirl take up the slack tonight till Batman needs to let off some steam at not having caught these people five minutes after Robin was captured he'll go and beat a handful of muggers or maybe your family bloody saying he's looking for answers."

"Did you notice how some of those folks were ready to go hunting though?"

"Yeah, it looks like the war we thought might be triggered is about to be a reality more deadly than anything we were expecting."

"Where is Nightwing in all of this?"

"He's getting the Canary from Quebec where she was looking into a smuggling ring for me."

"So it really is just a girls night out tonight then? No one but you calling the shots tonight if we screw up and we already have a semi working relationship as it is."

"Yes try not to scare anyone to badly all right?"

"It's a deal." Helena said as she parked her car and headed up to her apartment to don her purple and black costume and become the bane of the Italian Mafia. The Huntress would soon be ready to prowl with her crossbow held ready. A small grin crept over Helena's face it had been a long time since she had been allowed to patrol the city without any repercussions hopefully she wouldn't get herself killed cause she was enjoying life to much these days to simply fall over and die.


	12. Ch 12

Ch 12

**Oldscout** I will try to proof read things better next time fraid I kinda got used to having a beta back me up. Love your HPBTVS stories by the way are you updating anytime soon?

**Hand** I'll try like I told oldscout I got lazy be sure to gripe at me if I do it again though.

**dogbertcarroll** Thank you for that I thought that it was needed and it was fun writing a mob styled chapter even if it was hard. Thought I was going to need to watch the godfather series for a while there though.

**Slinky-and-the-BloodyWands** glad you liked that I always thought that Dawn would have a bit more dirtier mind than they showed her with I mean seriously she hung out with Spike and Anya the king and queen of sex and killing talk.

**General Mac** here is more bud and ass kicking is coming soon.

Now on with this crazy little story of mine.

Alfred sighed as he placed the phone back down. It seemed that the council had decided to increase their secrecy policies by changing the numbers of all of the contact numbers that former watchers might know. He had been at the task all night so far and had yet to find a number that actually worked in talking with the council. It seemed as if all of the numbers that he had painstakingly memorized were now as useless as the knowledge of some of the ancient civilizations that he had. He mentally reviewed all of the numbers he had called, he had tried the watchers that had been rising stars he had tried the research division, the main office, the weapons and R&D departments the various libraries that held some of the most ancient books of prophecy. He had even tried calling that power hungry fool Travers who was on the verge of becoming the head of the council when Alfred had left. Some of the few people he hadn't called were members of the old watcher families like the Windam-Pryce's.

One family he remembered well even if the son had never truly been extremely willing to take his lessons on etiquette. Though he had passed his tests with flying colors he had always had a bit of a rough side to him. Not entirely unlike that of Master Bruce. Who had the Batman side of him that was always on the rougher edge than his Bruce Wayne side who was a bit of a weakling but a person that showed his Master's humanity. The boy that he had trained had, had two sides as well one had been his given name the other had been some name he had picked up while in college and making quite a name of himself as he understood. Some people now referred to him as a bit of an legend these days he had heard while others had insisted that he would rise again in time. Bracing himself he made the call hoping that the family was still there. After all it wasn't every watcher family that had demon hunters in it as well. And the family had defiantly had the reputations of the more hands on type of watchers. He dialed the number and waited till he heard the phone ring he waited for the third ring before anyone answered.

"Lo, you've reached the Giles residence. Whaz up?" A young female voice answered the call much to the relief of the butler.

"Umm yes, I would like to speak with the head of the Giles family if you please." Alfred said surprised that not only was a girl answering but the way she answered. One of the members of the family must have received a new potential to train if this was how the phone was being answered these days.

"Yah sure no prob." The girl said in a perky voice then Alfred was bombarded by the familiar and extremely unpleasant sound of a teenager yelling across the room at someone else. "YO GILES! YA GOT SOMEONE ON THE LINE!" Alfred sighed glad now that none of his recent charges had been teenage girls except for Miss Cassandra. Girls seemed to be rather hard to contain if they were kept isolated from the rest of the world and made to focus primarily on their training. The only one of his charges that had ever come close to that kind of energy was Master Dick and he at least knew when to act serious. Unlike this girl who seemed as if she was trying to compete for some contest on how loud she could yell.

"Thank you Kennedy." He heard in the background as someone new took over the phone someone with a slight edge to his voice as if he wanted nothing more than to take the girl and strangle her. "Rupert Giles speaking. How may I help you?" The voice said with a considerable less amount of emotion.

"Are you certain? "For a moment there it sounded like the voice of that young man that I had to teach the proper etiquette that an English gentleman should always use. I would hate to think that all of those hours that I spent drilling those things into your head had not slowly leaked out of that over sized cranium of yours." Alfred teased his former charge.

Giles was silent for a minute as he thought of the various tutors that he had over the years. They had all mainly been watchers that were between duties or on a much-needed leave after recovering some ancient tome or weapon that had been thought lost to the ravages of time. But the teasing that was being thrown at him with the stiff British accent could only be one person. "Would this happen to be a certain mister Alfred Pennyworth?"

"It would indeed my dear boy and just what are you going by these days? When you spoke to the young lady a moment ago you sounded more like your more wild self yet when you answered me you returned to the young gentleman that I trained."

"Yes well I suppose that Rupert is the young man you trained and Ripper was who he was before that and now the two have come together to become the person simply known as Giles. I am glad to hear you survived Mr. Pennyworth."

"Survived what?"

"Um, perhaps you should tell me what it is you are looking for Mr. Pennyworth then I can explain to you what has been going on while you have been on leave."

"Very well, all I know is that I left the council more than thirty years ago when I had a disagreement with the current heads of the council on the way a slayer should be treated. I was therefore released from all of my duties as a watcher and forced to make my way in the world. I have managed to procure a reasonable working setup at the moment that has lasted the entire time."

"Yes well I believe you may have missed a few highlights in the war in the mystical world if you've been out of the loop for a while." Giles responded wondering what it would take to get this man to rejoin the council. He could send the man somewhere with adequate means to train the slayers in question. Since Buffy had insisted that each town with a high vampire population have two slayers at the very least in hopes of easing the whole bit of responsibility the girls would feel toward the town. She had also been quite insistent that the girls have small teams or as Xander had referred to them cells in which they primarily worked with. Alfred Pennyworth would make an excellent watcher for the ones in need of a type of caregiver much as Buffy had needed when she first became the slayer.

"Could you please just give me the basics I'm afraid I am rather pressed for time at the moment." Alfred responded.

"Yes well the council is under new management now after its near destruction by an entity known as the First. The entity that claimed to be the very first evil there is. It ordered its legion of followers to then hunt down all the watchers and potentials that they could find in an attempt to wipe out the Slayer line after it had unintentionally been altered. The actions of this entity led to the slayer and a group of individuals to cause an implosion of the Hellmouth in California. A hellmouth that was active for at least seven years and the rising of a new order in the world of the slayer."

"It does sound as if you have been busy lately. I am impressed that you were able to survive such a frightful mess Rupert."

"Yes I suppose it is rather impressive that we managed to survive the whole mess at all considering the fact that we had a swarm of Turok-Hans was trying to get at us during the final battle."

"Turock-Hans? As in the super vampires, but they can only rise in mass numbers when the balance has been altered." Alfred said in a shocked voice at the information he was receiving.

"Yes well the balance was altered and is still altered, so quite frankly I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop. As the yanks like to say. Now what can I do for you Mr. Pennyworth?"

"Well it seems that the Slayer has been sighted in the city that I am currently residing in and is on the verge of making the protector here try and take her in or at the very least try to run her out of town."

"Really and just who would this protector be?"

"The Batman."

Alfred heard a sound like liquid be squirted out of a small area at an extremely fast rate and summarized that the other Britain had just spit out his drink. "The, the Batman! You mean to tell me the stories are true and that the order of the Bat soars once again?"

"I am afraid I know not of this order that you speak of. But yes Batman is indeed real. As real as the slayer is."

"The order was an ancient warrior clan that worshipped bats in an attempt to gain their powers they even worshipped vampires briefly before they turned to demon hunting."

"Then the answer is no this is a different type of order altogether and just as dangerous as some of the great vampire houses."

" Yes well I suppose that if that is the case then we should have the two work together." Giles suggested. "We thought that the stories of the Batman were really just tales about some demons that flew around all the time or something like that."

"I am disappointed in you Rupert if that is what you thought the Batman was." The butler admonished.

"I do apologize Mr. Pennyworth but I believe that it was the consensus of the old council and I have not had the time to worry about beings that fight regular crime, demon or not."

"Really, and what part of the new council are you in?" Alfred asked.

"Well I am now the head of the watchers council." The reply came back almost sheepishly as if the man was embarrassed to be in the position he now occupied.

"Very well done Rupert, your father would be most proud that you now hold such a prestigious position in the world." Alfred complemented his former pupil.

"At the moment it seems as if it is nothing more than an honorary title since the handful of watchers that survived refuse to take any orders at all from the new council that we have forged. Some have even gone and switched sides taking valuable texts and documents as bartering tools. It is most distressing to see the once mighty council in the shambles it is now in."

"Yes of course, but I need to know if I have permission to tell the Batman about the slayer."

"I suppose so, I forget which city is the Batman from."

Alfred smiled, there were few people who could actually say that but then again he was a bit preoccupied with saving the world in his own way. "Gotham city is where the Batman makes is base."

"Dear lord no," he heard as Giles sat down heavily in his seat. "This is indeed bad I thought I could have someone explain to you what was going on and maybe send you a slayer to explain things. But the fact is that quite possibly the most powerful slayer in time barring the first slayer that is, now resides in Gotham."

"What!" Alfred asked stunned that the small girl he had seen on the monitor in the cave could be catalogued so powerful. "She didn't seem more than 18 maybe 19."

"Yes she is very good at the acts of deception she learned from some of the best how to hide herself in plain sight and how to be thought of as a mere nuisance. That is until she killed them."

"This is indeed dangerous then. The Batman has a habit of trying to railroad any and all crime fighters into doing things his way."

"Then we do have a problem because this slayer was not council trained and has a small army of companions at her beck and call that will move heaven and earth to make sure that she is all right and if the Batman tries to make her do something there may be problems."

"The slayer has companions? This girl who is said to walk the paths of darkness alone has companions?"

"Yes, despite occasional attempts to push the group away they are always there ready to help her and even played crucial parts in permanently sealing up a hellmouth."

"The powers must be very pleased with such a warrior then."

"It is hard to be sure of that sometimes," the leader of the council leader said thinking of all of the grief that had been thrust upon her shoulders. "I think that if she could fight the forces of darkness without any help from the powers then she would make the attempt without a second thought. She did quit the council after all."

"A slayer quit the council?" Alfred asked slightly alarmed at the prospect of a slayer having the power to quit the council and still be alive.

"Yes, she didn't enjoy having the council yanking her chains as she referred to their attempts at controlling her."

"Rupert Giles, you better tell me how to get in contact with this girl at once! If she is truly as independent as you say she is then she and the Batman will most definitely have a clash of unknown power. It would be the talk of both the mystical and the regular world it would rate some where near the legend of the time that Superman fought Doomsday if the two of them are allowed to fight."

"Yes it was indeed difficult to keep the Slayer away from that fight even after we explained that she wouldn't last more than three seconds. She still thinks she should have been there though to offer her aide."

"A true hero then I doubt there was a person that wore the mantle of a hero that did not feel that way on that day and some who didn't felt that way as well."

"Yes but as that is in the past and I don't want you to run up to hefty a phone bill I will have this slayer explain the current way things are to you so you can then relay this information to the Batman. I also want to discuss with you on a later date about returning to the fold as we are in dire need of watchers."

"It will be hard my dear boy. I am afraid that I have other loyalties now than I did thirty odd years ago Rupert."

"That is perfectly understandable I suggest that you meet with the slayer in your town before confronting the Batman with this information so that you can learn of all of the changes that have happened in the years since you have left."

"Very well."

"Just know that you will have to prove to the slayer that you are trustworthy."

"And how would one go about gaining a semblance of trust with the Slayer?"

" I believe if you told them of the circumstances that forced you into seeking other employment that you would have quiet a decent size respect and if you were to mention that nephew of yours that sat in on some of my classes you will learn more than you expected and your respect shall rise even higher."

"Thank you Rupert I will give it thought." The Butler placed the phone on the hook. Before he headed back down to the cave he fixed some tea for master Bruce to drink, as the man often would ignore such things in his efforts to find clues.

"Well?" Batman asked as the butler came down he had sensed the old man coming and needed his answers fast.

" I expect to be able to tell you tomorrow Sir." He responded stiffly as he set the silver tray down.

"It better be good." Batman muttered as he stalked toward the super computer to run another trace on the blood sample. The butler smiled sadly at the man before him then left the cup and returned to the mansion to clean it up again. He wondered if they should have a welcome back from being captured party this time around as he walked up the long stairway.


	13. ch 13

I'm Back!

Thanks for all for the reviews peoples! Another complete page dedicated to answers to your comments as well

**NoLifeKing,** that chapter, and another one that I had been working on just got mixed up, but since then, I lost something, like two and a half chapters that mainly needed some of the usual, and much required punctuation, that I soo suck at, so my creative personality decided to take a break from this story for a while till, I could come up with something new, unless people would like my view on Willow, vs Oracle, in the cyber world? the stinking chapter was 11 pgs long! And by your request, here is more Dawn & Tim, see doesn't it help when you ask. Oh yeah, I finally saw the 5th season of Angel, gotta admit, Spike's come back wasn't anything cool, just open a letter, and bang he's a ghost, open a box a few weeks later, and bang he's corporal, as they said it, big freaking whoop.

**Mystjade** your gonna get me embarrassed by saying I'm that good thankfully their was a what you did wrong in there as well kept my head size down to an appropriate level

**Damia-Queen of the Gypsi's** Glad your liking it and yeah he does get that way a lot sorry it took so long to update

**LmiC2001** muse got turned off for a while sorry about that but it's slowly coming back on and I've figured out a way to bring some well known baddies into this tale not telling though.

**Mathais** Thank you for both the compliments and the complaints I'll try to fix that particular paragraph. Do you know of a good beta the place I look doesn't have many beta's for comic book characters at least not DCU ones, so if you know of one send it in your next review heck that goes for everyone!

**General Mac, Murdough** should I just put the two of you in a room to fight out who the winner of that fight would be? If Batman goes in thinking he's dealing with a girl with just enhanced senses of smell sight theirs a chance she might catch him by surprise, if he goes in knowing what to expect then she better be ready to learn a few new moves, its all depends on research and skill in fighting they may be closer than anyone thinks and have a draw where they both end up with a winning punch or something, as for tossing disrespect that's kind of her defense mechanissim when the shit starts flying **Murdough **

**Dogbertcarrol** Harsh? Sorry if he seems that way, but Batman always is acting a bit rougher around the edges when his "family" is in trouble, and remember, this is all still in the same night, he hasn't had a whole lot of time to cool off about it yet, and the lack of info on who or what B is frustrates him, especially when he knows that the sourc,e is so close, but he can't demand Alfred tell him anything reall,y because he has to much respect for the old guy.

**W1ckedangel**, thanks for the review, and yeah I'm planning on using him in a pair up along the way

Tim's POV

Tim sighed; he tried to separate himself once again from the group. Sure it was important to try and keep calm and together, and he really admired Dawn for turning, what had once been a room full of terrified teens, and preteens, into a group of mostly calm people. But the fact was, that he really had mixed feelings about the current truce, between most of the people in the room. On one hand, some of these kid's parents had ordered him and his friends at one time or another, to be sliced, beaten, shot, or blown to bits. He shifted a bit, trying to get comfortable against the wall he was leaning against, the kid who was using his leg for a pillow didn't help, he frowned slightly, as he looked down at the kid, the bags under his eyes were huge, if he had to guess, he would say that this would probably be the first decent nights sleep, the kid had gotten, since his capture. He looked off to either side of the room, and saw the hard-core traditionalists, who were still trying to play the whole, keep to your side of the room, or I'll do something to hurt you. How stupid could they be? In a way, this was like being back in the NML all over again, but instead of gangs, there was upper, and lower class, and what's more, there was no way for him to be Robin, he had to do what he could, as plain old ordinary Tim Drake, sure he had a transmitter hidden in his belt, but none of the electronic equipment that people had even worked anymore, the same with his transmitter, somehow the people that had them were blocking all kinds of signals. He needed time away from the group, in order to try and fix the transmitter, then contact Batman, or maybe Oracle, he was pretty sure that the transmitter would have the power needed to reach Oracle, once he got the thing, to start, Oracle would then relay his status to Batman, who probably had the whole bat clan searching for these guys, both official and unofficial. Who knows, maybe this is what the Canary and Huntress, have been needing to prove their worth to Batman, While Batman thought, that they were good, he didn't cut them even the slightest bit of slack, and he sure as hell never gave the Huntress any slack, he sometimes kept her out of the loop more often than he should, maybe when he got back, and proved that he wasn't in need of a baby sitter, cause he could just picture the whole clan now, shadowing him from time to time, to make sure that he was all right, if he caught them doing it, the others would back off, but not Batman, no, he would decide when Tim had learned his lesson on vigilance, so unless he could figure a way to get all of the people out of here, he wasn't leaving. The other reason preventing him from getting up, was Dawn, she had put up a brave front and all, but she looked exhausted, like she had gone head to head with Bane, then had to deal with all of the twisted things that had to deal with the Riddler, and Joker, and had finally brought them to justice. But the girl in question, was leaning on his shoulder right now, and he didn't have the heart to tell her to get off of him, besides he knew it sounded crazy, but he actually enjoyed watching her sleep, he didn't know if that made him a pervert or what, but just watching her rest, was enough for him at the moment. Sighing again, as much as he enjoyed this, he had to deal with the problem at hand, maybe later they could snuggle, preferably in front of a movie with snacks and stuff, instead of a ware house in obvious need of repairs, and had way to many people watching them. He slowly eased himself free, first of the kid, slowly lifting his leg and maneuvering the kid's head, till it was over his discarded jacket, he then slowly pulled his leg off to the side, he wanted the head to land nice and soft, not bang itself on the way down, or get clipped by his foot, there that was done, now came the not so fun part, he eased his arm out from underneath Dawn, as slow as possible, he was pretty sure he had managed to get free of the girl, who had stolen nearly every bodies heart, he then eased himself up, and stepped away from the group, he only made it a few steps, when some of the snobs, Cindy, among, them, decided to have a little bit of a talk with him, regarding Dawn's behavior.

"Listen Drake, tell your girl to stop acting like a complete idiot, she doesn't know anything about the way Gotham, or the Haven work. They may be acting nice now, but if they were back home, they would have her in their daddies whore house, with out a second thought, is that really the kind of naïve person you want to be seen hanging around with?"

"She doesn't seem to care, where they come from right now," Tim said, "she seems more interested, in keeping the various people calm, and couldn't give a damn about the various ways that the power is strung up. So, how about you guys, give it a rest, huh?

"We're warning you Drake," the guy said, before he began walking back to his corner, followed by his group of followers.

"Great, as if it wasn't bad enough that I got captured, now I have to deal with control freaks, who think that I should kiss their asses," Tim grumbled. "Sometimes, I wonder if it's just my luck, or maybe if the bat name is just a curse for dates, I mean look at Dick, the guy had dated aliens, super villains, crazy people like the Huntress, a girl who turned out to be FBI, the most stable relationship that Nightwing had ever had, was when he had been dating Oracle. Then there was Bruce, he might not have as many talked about stories, but he had shown interest in both Wonder Woman, and Cat Woman, two near polar opposites, he thought, one had been trying to give woman all over the world, the freedom of who they were, the other freed them of some of their most valuable things, one was a bon a fide super hero, the other was nothing more, than an acknowledge thief, then there was that Talia chick, that Bruce really seemed to have feelings for, even if she did want to end the world or something like that, he hadn't been dating long, so he had only managed to have Steph, as a date, AKA the Spoiler, but she had gotten pregnant with another guy, so that had kind of killed that relationship for the moment, since she didn't want to be seen like that. Now the question was, would his luck turn out to be like the other people in the Bat Clan, or would he actually find a girl, that he could bring by his father's house, and not just the cave, or Titan Tower? He glared at the retreating figures, this was just not his day, he couldn't think of anything, to make it all that much worse, and that was when some of the ugly goon squad, decided to make their entrance.

"Here we go again," he mumbled, "hope I don't blow the identity this time around," as he turned to protect Dawn, or whoever needed protecting.

"Alright you kids, get back to your corners! The guy said, "or I'll really, let you know pain," the guy, looked like one of the one's that had brought them here, Tim was pretty sure. The guy was well muscled, about six foot, and was wearing a big hat that covered the top of his head, and a runny nose to, maybe that meant, that either A. They were someplace near the docks, and the guy had been given one to many morning shifts, or B they were being held someplace cold, maybe the entrance to this place was located in a freezer, or a meat plant, there were a few of those in Gotham, or maybe even one of the refining factories for the fish that were caught. "C'mon kids, get yourselves back to your corners," the guy said grumbling, sending dirty looks at several of the kids.

"And what is your problem?" a voice asked the big guy. The man eyes widened in shock, that someone from a bunch of kids, would dare to stand up to him, but there was Dawn Summers, looking him right in the eye, her hands on her hips, sending a glare at him, that was noteworthy, despite the fact, that she appeared to still be partially asleep.

"I think, the fact that your actually in my way right now, is enough," the man growled back at her, clenching his fist, Tim hoped, that was to resist the urge to rip Dawn apart. "Now, get out of my way you," the next word no one could understand, as he used some of the salvia in his throat, to say a word no one understood, that is except for Dawn Summer's.

"Whatever," she said, her eyes hardening, "but you, oh so, did not compare me, to a flesh bag full of maggots."

"How did."

"I have friends in interesting places pal, know a few people in England in fact."

"What does England, have to do with the way I talk?" The guy asked confused, as he stared hard at her, as if looking at her just right, would explain, whatever it was that she had said.

"Forget it, and why don't you tell us, what you want already?" she asked, sidestepping the question with ease.

"Yeah sure, whatever bitch," the guy said, in an annoyed voice. He obviously wanted to force her into continuing, but something was stopping him. Tim noticed, that Dawn was keeping the thug's attention drawn to herself, and away from the other kids, as if the guy would be distracted that long. "I don't have time for this," he said breaking off the staring contest, he had been holding. "Joan Andrews? Where are ya kid? Your parents had the smarts to pay up fer you and yer cousin." The two party girls, that had been fussing, earlier, slowly stepped out of the crowd, the man looked at the two, licking his lips, as an evil grin came on his face, leaving little doubt, as to what he was thinking, the two girls would be good for.

"Are you really going to send us home?" One of the girls asked, it might have been Joan, but it might not have been as well, so it was useless to try and figure it out.  
"Yeah sweetie. now get your asses in gear." He said, pushing them roughly toward the single door, in the giant warehouse, taking the two of them out. The others, watched as the two men, that had come in behind, pulled out hunting rifles and held them out, as they backed out, till they could slip through the door, a door that swung into the room, and seemed to be made of some fairly thick metal, there was no way, he was going to be able to fake breaking that thing, with out his utility belt.

Dawn's POV

Dawn smiled to herself as she leaned on her pillow, sure this whole thing was a complete bag of stressful crap and all, plus she was having to deal with kids, who were really stupid enough to think that because their parents earned money in different ways that they had nothing in common as if most of the supposedly nice and gentle money making lawyers were all prime candidates for a trip to whatever hell dimension that dealt with people that hid behind false faces saying that they were the angels of the world while the so called bad guys of the money making world at least had the decency to be polite even acknowledge the threat that some of the people that were there and stopped them take the rumors of the bat guy for instance if he was a guy then they all may try to kill him but he also had a certain amount of respect course the bat person was more than likely some type of urban legend with a gargoyle or something trying to fill in the spot that had been created cause Gargoyles were supposed to protect people and all right sure the scoobies had never run across one before but they could easily have become hidden in all of the statues that dotted Gotham and they say that the guy usually does his work at night as well so that gives another point to the gargoyle theory even if Giles is positive that the bat guy is nothing more than a legend. Who knows who care all she did know at the moment is that she owed her sister a huge apology she had never understood what it had meant being the one that most people were looking toward for answers it seemed that none of them had really understood the kind of stress that the slayer had been under at the time and she was only getting the briefest idea at the moment of what Buffy had felt cause no one expected her to go and lead all of these kids to a victory or death over the demonic army gathering in the hell mouth with this bunch of people or even lead them into a battle of what she was pretty sure were partial demons but a little bit more time around them to be sure cause they were pretty good at this whole prisoner thing they hadn't made the kids divide but their was a chance that they would try something new now that they were calm because calm people were good people at making plans so now that she had gone and thrown a wrench into that particular piece of the plans they would now have to do something different to induce mistrust back into the ranks that made up the kids after all they didn't drop her and Tim on the good kids side for no reason besides she needed something to do while she waited for her sister to get here or else she would scream. She felt Tim move around and felt him easily lower her down as he got up she considered acting like the movements had awakened her but no the guy kind of liked being alone who knows maybe she had found her version of Angel only hers was able to walk in the sun and maybe if she could figure out what his loner thing was maybe she could make him smile and not have gut him with a sword when she finally figured him out. She heard the door of the room open somewhere and she looked tiredly up at the goon patrol that was now making their way toward them waving their guns around with a swagger definitely making up for something there she thought grimly as she hauled herself to her feet. After they had spent a moment of posturing she got fed up and asked them what they wanted in here that they had to go and disturb her precious sleep. It seemed that they wanted the party twits as she had dubbed the two skanks in dresses but there was no way that she was going to let them just waltz in here and take them despite their lack of taste in good movies, seriously they had thought the last Harry Potter movie had been good besides the Dementors and the Hippogriff the movie stunk. No all she had to do was figure a way to convince the idiot brigade to them all alone well all she was managing so far was getting insulted in really bad accented version of Fyarl this guy seriously needed to work on his accent if he was going to insult someone and even more if he was going to try and talk in it. To bad this guy seemed only slightly smarter tan your full blooded demon version but the guy didn't even know what England had to do with anything what kind of half breed was this dork anyway but the guy did have a gun a fact that he was very proud of it seemed as he waved the weapon around although if she was to judge by the expression on its face it was more because the guy was getting confused and frustrated. The two scale twins that were with him had some type of protective scales that surrounded their entire bodies but in most places it seemed to be flesh colored except for certain places that required extra armor for the more vulnerable spots on their demonic father or mother.

She was inwardly seething as she watched the goons lead the twits away but to keep the remaining people calm she just placed a cheery smile on her face she had been taught how to fake cheerfulness from the best after all. Alright guys since were all awake now I guess we need another game she said she couldn't help notice that Tim was looking for a way out yet again you had to admire that in a guy he was really persistent in looking and if she could keep everyone's attention on her and away from her date then all the better at least she hoped so after all they still had the trackers on them but maybe he was more interested in trying to find a way to get his phone or something working if she recalled corrected the guy was a computer genius not quite on Willow's level but he was definitely good at what he did and was determined to find a way to break through the wall of whatever was blocking the phone signals from getting out So anybody have any ideas on what we can play while we wait for them to make their next move.

Oh shut up Cindy said glaring at Dawn as if her very existence offended her.

What the hell has crawled up your butt now Dawn asked tiredly she had known the whole confronting thing was coming but she had personally thought it would have waited till they received a meal or something but if the girl wanted to go at it now then she was more than willing to kick her ass all over the place as long as no one interfered with said ass kicking.

"Who do you think you are?" Cindy sneered at the brown haired girl, trying to crack the hard emotional shell the other girl had. "Some kind of peacemaker, that's going to lead us all out of this mess?"

"Nah, I'm only the one, not trying to judge a person on their parents." Dawn said shrugging, "I mean seriously, we're all in the same boat here kiddoes, so how about you take that pain the butt, high and mighty attitude of yours, and shove it, or just shut your mouth, so we don't have to listen to you, and your pathetic judgmental song, that seems like a C.D, stuck on the same word, all the time."

"I'm going to hurt you for that," Cindy promised, flinging her body, at the person who dared to insult her, no one talked to her like that, and got away with it she was going to scratch her eyes out, and there was nothing Tim, or anyone else could do about it. She saw two of the more understanding people of high society, who didn't let themselves, get involved, with the wrong crowd, watching Tim, to make sure he didn't get involved, while she dealt with the little slut in front of her. Cindy was slightly taller, and had a longer reach than Dawn did, she smiled as she brought her hand forward, intending to get her long nails, under the smaller girl's skin.

Dawn smirked, as she caught the hand by the wrist, and twisted the arm, till it was behind Cindy's back, "you know," she said, almost conversationally, "I really don't like it, when people think, that just because it's me, that I'm an easy target. I mean seriously Cindy, I can take you down while I'm drunk, and one arm behind my back. How badly do you think, I'm going to kick, your over perfumed ass, when I'm sober?" She then twisted the arm around again, so that they were facing each other again, and then punched the girl in the stomach, she released her hold on the wrist, and grinned, as the blonde fell to the ground. "C'mon blondie, this is something you think, you need to do," Dawn said, gesturing with her hand, for the girl to come and get it, falling into a basic, hand to hand combat posture, her hands curled into fists, Cindy looked for a way out, but found that all of the kids had formed a circle, around the two, "gees, can we get more crazy?" Dawn asked the crowd, before a panicked Cindy came at her again. Dawn let the girl try twice, the first time, she just knocked the other girl away with a hard shove, and a punch combo, to her ribs, the next time that she came at her, throwing herself bodily, at the former key, Dawn grabbed the hand, and flipped her over her shoulder, then straddling the other girl, she slammed her laced together hands, into the other girl's gut. "Don't screw with me, I'm more than you can handle. You got it?" Dawn said coldly, before she got back up, wondering, if Cindy would try and jump back up, and strike her, when she turned her back. But, the other girl had, had enough evidently, and was content to just lay where she had fallen, gasping for breath. Dawn melted into the crowd, while everyone else just stared in surprise at her, over the speed and skill; she had used, to beat her opponent.

"That was interesting." Tim said, as he fell in beside her, glancing at her for a moment, before continuing on, as if nothing had happened, "so, any thoughts on why they seem so threatened by you?"

"Yeah, I scare the shit out of them." Dawn said shrugging, "but you'd think, that they would have at least, let me finish my sleep, before pushing my buttons, she griped, smirking a little, as she found her spot against the wall and laid back down, "Now hopefully, I can get some sleep, without being interrupted. Tim seemed to be fighting a grin, as he watched her go back to sleep, .


	14. Chapter 14

Don't own a thing Joss and Mutant academy own the Buffy verse while D.C owns their universe. And yes, can you believe it? I'm finally back. On with the Answers to all of your great questions and comments!

**Zang, dogbertcarrol, LMiC2001, Damia-Queen of the Gypsi's, hithwen tinuviel (**3 reviews?**), crossoveraddict, legolasfan91, and Night-Owl** thank you for your words of encouragement.

**Doza **I'm not sure if I'll be having a whole lot more guest stars but while I was planning something the idea of supes helping in a part came into a bit of a plan so there might be a chance due to the way you described him coming in so keep your fingers crossed.

**King Henery the V **sorry my story no longer interests you.

**cmdruhura **Why are you reading my story? you got a great plot beging there now work with it!

**Mathais** I don't want you as a beta due to the fact I enjoy your critisisim which inspires me to work harder. Is the comma's better this time?

And to everyone I'll try and update sooner this time now that my computer is working and I'm ot using a disk that decides it needs to format the day before I want to post making me loose the much better version of this chapter and half of the next one!

Buffy rolled her shoulders tiredly to loosen up the kinks, over the stress of loosing Dawn again. The threesome had hit three demon bars so far, and all they had to show for it was several piles of vampire dust and a new collection of dismembered Demon parts. Now they were looking down at the most secretive of the bars. This place was to the human and mystical world as a tough place to be around. Her Slayer half wanted to just storm down there and demand answers preferably with her fists. To bad not every bar had a Willie in it, some of the bartenders in this city actually had the annoying habit of having backbones. Grumbling to herself, she stretched herself out really wanting to go down all of the mystical demon energy she could feel was giving her a hellmouth sized headache and she really wanted to end this quickly. But she was never going to charge into an unknown place without a plan if she could help it. The cost of doing that was simply to high, and she wasn't always the one that paid the price the price. Xander had paid for her impatience last time, true he saw better with that weird visor that the council had cooked for him. But it justwasn't the same, and she would always know who was to blame for that. It was originally a research project that the old council in one of their secondary bases had been working on Willow had completed the item and added in her own upgrades with both magic and technology that gave him, a device that he wore that wrapped around his head that allowed her best friend to see in several different spectrums. Andrew, naturally had been the first to notice the similarities to the visor that Cyclops wore the only difference was that the screen on his was blue instead of the red that Andrew thought it should be.

She looked down at the bar that was on street level, or rather below street level. It kind of reminded her of the outside setup for that "Cheers" show, where a person had to walk down a set a steps to get in. The only difference was, that while that place was supposed to be really cheerful annoyingly cheerful if you got right down to it, this one was real, and the area around it was real to. Set up about three blocks from the place that the locals called crime alley. She had laughed her head off along with Xander when they had heard this, the place was more like feeding grounds than anything else, and no one really noticed the extra bodies that happened to show up without any real reason for the blood being sucked out. Occasionally they were blamed on one of the dorks in flashy outfits that the Batman guy took out, or some weird mutant or alien that lived in the sewer system. Buffy smiled slightly, as she felt the breeze wash over her. That was one of the things she loved about this, city the buildings trapped the breezes and forced them up giving a refreshing feeling as they pushed upwards. The slight smile disappeared though as she remembered what it was that she was here for. She was already sore from a half dozen fights with various demons and vampires from the other bars that the three of them had already hit. She was watching this place from the fire escape right now it was supposed to be where the heavies hung out and a few hanger oners' as well. It was one of these hangers that she wanted to talk to. She gripped the railing on the fire escape that she was standing on ignoring the fact that she was leaving indents on it from the pressure.

"What's the word?" Buffy asked not turning to see the figure that had landed soundlessly above her as she was watching the place.

"This is definitely the place." Faith said as she slid down next to the head slayer, she had long become accustomed to the blonde sensing people whenever they got to close to her. For most people it freaked them out. Especially the newbie slayers who got scared whenever they tried to ambush the head slayer. She had seen them shiver in fear, when the slayer stopped the weapons, they tried to use against her in hopes, of surprising the lead slayer. Then there was the fact that the two of them shared a special kind of connection that neither of them really minded much anymore. The two girls were dressed in matching black outfits of black leather that shined in the bits of light; the only difference that was easily noticeable was the fact that while Buffy wore the scythe on her back Faith wore a broadsword.

The two slayers looked down at the building for a moment before the other slayer began. Basic setup was kind of like Willy's, except that like all the other places it's hidden by something or other. It seemed that the various demons, and stuff didn't want the big bad Batman guy to come and crash their various places. Personally, the blonde slayer wanted to just rush down in there and start breaking heads till the tortured soulless beings finally told her where they were keeping her little sister. What was it with the bad guys going after her anyways?

"Xan says, that that there doesn't appear to be anything waiting around the corners for us to make a move either. Though he did say that it looked like there might be some birds in the middle of some serious mating." Faith smirked slightly at this.

"Only you two, who are in two separate relationships, would ever think of something like that being of any real importance." She said teasingly.

" So you think their ready for us?"

"Doubtful. They probably know were around, but not that their next on the list of targets at least I'm pretty sure they don't know about that. They probably think, that due to the way they're hidden that they got at least until tomorrow, before we show up, and start messing with their little stink hole."

"Yeah, you think its true, that a lot of the heavy wieghters come around to this one?"

"Its possible, you know how those snooty clubs are though, they might be a little difficult to get into."

"Yeah right, tell me, what's the most impressive killer amongst these guys tonight girl. I'll tell ya she's currently looking like she wants to break a dozen skulls, despite the fact that she looks like she either needs to get laid, or get in another fight."

"Your impossible," Buffy said, "now can we get back to this?" she asked pointing to the building.

"Yeah, but you still think I'm hot." Faith said, "my slaydar doesn't pick anything up that I can really distinguish, and Xander was playing Cyclops a minute ago, and says that there's nothing that we'll trigger till were already inside." Faith held back on the snicker that she usually gave, when the visor that Xander now wore into combat was mentioned

"Yo Xand, you ready?" Buffy asked, fingering the radio that she had on her ear.

"Ready and able," the voice replied. The mind speak, that Willow could set up for them was nice and all, but it was hard for her to use at larger distances, and it was a distraction for her when she was busy on something else, like working on hacking the police reports, and any and all other files about what was going on about this particular case.

"Lets do it." Buffy said, as she began sliding down a drainpipe with practiced ease. It was almost as much fun, as it was when she was sneaking out of her room late at night. She grinned to herself, as she jumped at the belly of the beast again, dragging her friends with her, knowing that even if they weren't obvious that they all were wearing identical smiles of anticipation, as they went. None of them would have it any other way, than to being going into another crazy fight.

The NML short for no man's land was a club and bar, that was set up for a place that the survivors of No Man's Land could come and try and act like they were still the masters of their own lives, and that so much of what they fought for had not been lost, when their home had been allowed to reenter the U.S. True their lives were easier now, but they had also lost something. The place was covered with graffiti from all of the various gangs and groups that had been around during the NML. There was the Blue GCPD sign, that Gordon himself had put up on opening day, there was also the symbols from the Two Face, and Penguin there was the sign from that rogue cop operation started with a P, Perry or something like that. The Batman had even come and given the place his tag, it was surrounding a map that the GCPD had donated, that showed who had controlled what part of the city.

The bartender though was not worried, about the significances of the tags that night. He was more worried about, what was going on in the hidden part of the bar. The NML had to parts to it, one part for the normals, then the other part was for the freaks that came in through either the secret entrance from the sewers, or the hidden doorway at the back of the room, that had to be using some of that weird B13 technology from metropolis. Cause there was no other way that a person could hide a doorway from the bat when he made his rounds, since he, or ones of his snot nosed followers came by here every once and a while. But despite being located so near to crime alley, they were relatively calm place. Though that was mainly due to the fact, that only NML survivors were allowed in, or people with the muscle to survive the two bouncers, that the real owner insisted that he use for some reason or other. Personally, he was betting that they were more of the freaks, but he didn't have any proof so couldn't complain to the boss without proof. The freaks were weird though; there were the human like ones that drank their stuff with some odd substance that made their already pale skin get even paler, their teeth lengthened and their eyes turned yellow. They were the only ones that had a notable change when they drank though sometimes he was pretty sure it was what they were spiking the drinks with. Almost every drink had an odd red substance put into it. He just knew that one of these days he was going to have to call backup for these freaks. But the thing was, all of the freaks were scared senseless tonight. They were talking about someone, or something that scared them worse than the Bat scared regulars. In its own way the name seemed to scare the freaks even more. Though that seemed to be because of the fact, that this person didn't make a habit of leaving the person alive, and that was the line that the Bat had never crossed. The freaks were whispering to themselves about a power that was making a move tonight. From what he gathered, the power was supposed to be powerful enough to scare a lot of the people into fleeing the city itself, after hearing the mere name mentioned. A name that he was having trouble catching, mainly because none of them wanted to say it, but it appeared that someone had taken something that belonged to this person, and now their would be hell to pay, and the freaks were all busy whispering about the people that She had taken down. Yeah, that's all he could get, that it was a she. He listened, as they compared stories about whom she had taken down. The names were something like a mile long but the names that came up the most were The Master and his disciple Luke, The Order of Taraka whoever they were, was said to have lost one of their most legendary teams to this person. She had taken on the three, someone they just called the mayor, who had control of her dark sided twin. She had taken on a guy named Adam, and the army almost simultaneously that name seemed to scare a lot of them. But not as much as the fact that she had taken down the Order of Aurliess, She had converted half of its number to her side they said. She had battled with a being known as Glory, or Glorifucus. Had fought someone called the First, and their lapdog Caleb, who was supposed to be a mountain of muscle that nothing except the Beast could fight. Sadly though, the Beast was dead now as well. But the conversation didn't stop there. It seemed that if on the off chance you did get by this person, and then you had to deal with the Watcher, the Witch, and the Knight. And if by some miracle you were still alive after all of that, there was still the two ensouled ones, that one would have to deal with, and according to a rumor they recently had allied themselves with a resurrected Old One.

A lot of the powerhouses in the place had left already, not wanting to deal with Her while she was in a bad mood. They all seemed to think, that it would be better to stay scarce. There was even sayings about the places that She had hit were already were now nothing more than piles of dirt now. The braggarts were all that were left along, with their minions who were to busy looking scared to really know, what they were doing. And there were a few beings that just wanted to be left alone.

He shrugged his shoulders, and turned back to his normal customers, that didn't have the label freak on them. He was cleaning up a mess someone had left when he saw them. The three figures calmly walked out of the shadows near the entrance. He saw them out of the corner of his eyes, and at first thought that it was the bat or one of his brood the way the first two walked, they had that same kind of graceful killing stalk that they had, the other was more like one of the rougher cops that didn't mind cracking skulls, or doing more if he needed to get what he wanted done. They were all dressed in black, and the walk was that of people who were used to problems. The only problem with them was that they all had their faces covered in some way, or other. The two girls had on half masks, while the guy had some type of visor that covered the top half of his face.

"Costumes." He heard the muttered word, as several people got up tossing their money down, and heading for the door, so as to avoid a scene with costumes. Soon, there were only the new arrivals and the bartender.

"Can I help you? Or are you kids just trying, to disrupt my business?"

The three chuckled lightly at this. The short one then shot her arm across the bar, and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and dragged him across the bar till he was nearly four or five inches off the ground. The other two were calmly pouring themselves drinks while their friend was holding him. "Where's the entrance, to the more realistic version of no man's land?"

"I got no idea what your talking about girl." He looked at her leather outfit and decided to take the chance that maybe this girl wasn't really as dangerous as she seemed to be. "Aren't you guys aware that Halloween is already over with?"

"Wrong answer," she said as she tossed him over her shoulder. The three of them in an almost bored manner, as the throw slammed him into a table. The force of the landing made the table collapse underneath him. The girl kneeled down beside him and looked at the guy. "Now, we could keep doing this all night, or you could tell us." The man swallowed fearfully, as he looked at those cold eyes that looked at him, like he was nothing more than a spot on the floor.

"You might want to tell her." The guy said, looking up from his shot glass. "She's in a really ad mood." He grinned coldly. "Course now that I think about it, they're both in really bad moods, and she," he said nodding to the girl kneeling beside him. "Is usually the calm one. Now tell her how to go talk to the nice people in the hidden room, or she may make like she did on Glory."

"And what did she do to this Glory person." The bartender asked a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, as he wondered if this was SHE.

"Beat her with a giant hammer." The guy said, "and Glory had taken the same thing, that is currently gone. Do you really think, that she won't tear you apart if it helps?"

"She doesn't have a hammer with her now though." The man said bravely.

"That's because I have this now." The woman said, as she pulled a weapon off of her back. The man swallowed as he saw the razor sharp blade on one end, and the sharpened wooden tip on the other.

"What are you going to do with that?"

"Ever been circumcised?"

She swung the weapon up, and just before he could make a sound to tell all he knew, one of the yellow-eyed freaks stumbled through the hidden door, he looked around the room his eyes narrowed on the girl over the terrified bartender. "Slayer." The creature said, growling slightly.

"Ers pal." The other girl said, as she stood up from where she had been leaning against the bar spinning her drink around. "Its Slayers, as in more than one. That is if a dust bag like you can actually add."

The freak looked at her and swallowed. "Shadow Slayer," he hissed at her.

"What do ya know? I finally got a name of my own." The girl said, and actually seemed to be puffing up slightly at this.

"Yeah, yeah whoopee. They now have a name to call you. Do you realize that we'll have to call the England bunch, and ask for al files on that name?" The young man said.

"The Knight." The freak growled out again, suddenly as he recognized the voice behind the visor.

"Aw no, not that! Please, anything but that. I am so not the freaking white Knight, that Dead Boy called me."

"Looks like we got another name to look up." Shadow Slayer said, smirking at the annoyed figure.

"Shut it Shadow Slayer." He said mockingly. Before turning back to the trembling Freak in front of him. "So, you know who we all are right?" The creature nodded, its eyes darting back and forth for a way out. "Guess that means that you're from home then right?"

"Yeah, I was there for quite a while. I just tried to make a habit of avoiding you guys. After all, no one with half a brain wants to wants to mess with any of you guys."

"That explains Spike." The guy muttered before snapping his fingers. "Now I know where I know you from." He said grinning like a maniac. "You were the bouncer at that stripper club, the uh Fish Tank right?"

"Do we even want to know?" Slayer asked, as the Freak nodded.

"Doesn't take a whole lot of guessing, how he would know." Shadow said, returning the lazy grin at her friends.

"Um, I think I'll just go and let you get on with things in there." The guy said, as he motioned to the hidden doorway. "What's the code, and the two really pissed off slayers don't turn you into a candidate for vacuum filler." The vampire told them how to get in, and then fled for the doorway. Turning, the guy smiled as his arm shot out and stabbed it in the chest. "I didn't say I wouldn't do anything." Knight muttered, as he returned the stake to his jacket as dust fell to the ground.

Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Slayer looked down at the bartender. "Two words for you ugly," she said. "Self-control." The three then walked through the hidden entrance. The man grunted as he got back up, he walked back to the bar and turned back to the security cams for the back area.

The three walked through the above ground entrance and looked around, all talk stopped as they came into view. Their names were muttered, but they all looked slightly worried and the former braggarts were now openly sweating, or getting various shades of pale, as they all seemed to recognize the group. "Slayer." Was the only muttered response that anyone seemed to have.

"You know, I have a name. Slayer said, "is it really that hard to say? Cause I'm pretty sure I didn't get it legally changed."

"Uh, can you really use that argument, when you're wearing a mask?" The male asked, watching the crowd for any more familiar faces.

"Fine. But I still reserve the right to be angry." The girl growled, her hands clenched angrily, as if she was considering yanking the head off the first freak to get in her way.

"Well pup," one of the few real muscles said from his poker table. "What is it that you want? Or is this just a shake down, to see who's on the correct liquid diet, or did you want something else?"

"I like him." Shadow Slayer said, as she looked at the demon, which was currently surrounded by a large pile of kittens.

"Anyways, were looking for Gar." The steel in the voice left little room for argument, as the eyes roamed around the room. Gar was considered the go to demon, when it came to information on anything in the city that was Gotham. He was supposed to be the demonic version of Oracle, with a complete and total recall that allowed him to know anything and everything. "We know he was coming here tonight folks. We just want to have a few words with the informant, and then we plan on going home. But if you want, we can tear this place apart, then talk to Garn and go home. "

"Get lost slayers." A tall figure said, as it stood up from its place at the bar. It was easily seven feet, and was scarily similar to the creatures from the predator movies.

"My turn." Shadow Slayer said, as she turned to face the creature. "Ooh, a headhunter! It's been a while, since I've had the chance to take on a headhunter."

"Your skull may have a place of honor, if the stories of your abilities are even halfway true Shadow Slayer. It shall be second to my father's."

"Wish I'd thought to do that with my family. Shadow Slayer said, as she looked the headhunter demon over.

"Whatever girl," the demon snarled as he withdrew a pair of hatchets, and threw himself at the girl before him. Two wicked looking knives met the downward thrusts, catching the blows and causing sparks to fly up into the air. Grinning Shadow Slayer kicked the demon in the gut sending it flying back into the wall. Roaring the demon jumped back at the girl.

"Hey!" A loud voice said, the two fighters broke apart, and looked at the bartender who was holding a shotgun in his hands. "You Laag, know the rules. No fighting in here, or you'll be shot." The demon nodded its head before sending a deadly glare at the slayer before returning to his seat. "As for you three, what do you want with Gar?"

"Information. I'm sure, you know the kind were after."

"He's over in the far booth." The man said, nodding towards the back.

"Thanks," Slayer said. "You know, you're a lot cuter than Willie."

"Great, glad to know that I fit with your approval Slayer. The man said. "Just tell me this one thing, is it true that your what they call a High Slayer?"

"Trust me, she's never been high in her life." Shadow Slayer said backing away from the Headhunter who was still in his seat, though neither of them looked liked they wanted to breakup their fight.

"Shut it." Slayer said, as she turned back to the booth the man, or Knight as they called him slid into the booth the two girls stood near the seats, and looked at the Demon in question.

The demon smiled weakly at them, as they looked at him. "Well, to what do I owe the pleasure of the company of some of the worlds most impressive people?" The demon was short, and rat like, his species was a rodent one, instead of the usual scaley kind."

"Enough small talk." Knight said, his voice stayed at a pleasant enough tone, but there was hardness to his voice. The visor flared briefly, making the light sensitive eyes of the demon in front of him scramble back and away from the trio, but was stuck where he was.

"Now then." Slayer said, her eyes hard chips of green ice bore into the demon; Shadow Slayer had eyes of darkness. "I'm going to ask you this once, and only once. Then, I'm going to use your head for a bowling ball if I don't get an answer. You got me?"

"S-s-Sure, no problem." The guy said swallowing nervously. "I can tell you where all the nests are, I can tell you where the Order mage hangs his hat if you want."

"Fine, then tell us where the half breeds are all working. Particularly a half-breed Fyarl, that had a hand in kidnapping of one of our people."

"Half-breed? Well there's only one place, that is hiring half-breed demons, and your basic vampires these days."

"And that would be?"

"No one knows," the demon said shrugging. "A couple of vamps came in here about a month ago, and said that anyone that was a combo was welcome to join. Rumor is, that whoever it is has got a polgra arachnid crossbreed on their payroll though."

"So, someone wants things that are mixed up huh? Where do we find these people?"

"No one knows exactly where these guys actually operating from." The demon said, shivering at the looks he was receiving. All I have, is an address for where the half-breeds go if they're interested. If they're allowed in, you don't here from them again if your not let in they send back your remains, to whatever bar it is that you came from."

"Address. Now." Shadow Slayer said. Nodding the demon wrote the address of a warehouse down for the girl, nodding the girl pocketed the paper. "Anyone have anything to add?" No one responded, nodding again the girl dropped a small roll of twenties on the table.

"Oh yeah bar man." Slayer said, "You might want to send a change of clothes up to the guy up front. He had a bit of an accident, if you know what I mean."

"Will do." The bartender said, smiling in amusement. The group then turned, and left, their jackets swirling behind them reminiscent of the capes, a majority of the city's usual protectors wore.

The three then took off through the door, and back into the normal part of the bar where the other barkeeper glared hatefully at them for announcing his embarrassing reaction to Slayer's actions.

The three of them made their way outside and into a small alley. "So you think that this was worth it?" Knight asked, as he stuffed his hands into his coat, and slouched slightly as they walked farther into the alley.

"Who knows?" Shadow Slayer said. But we'll check it out tomorrow, cause we need to get a few hours of sleep, and then we don't have to worry about the dust patrol at the very least."

"I don't like it, but alright." Slayer said, as she crossed her arms over her shoulders. "Oh yeah, you can come down from there already buddy. "

A figure in gray fell down to the ground lightly a slight grin gracing his face. "Sorry, I just had to see if you really were as good as he was saying." He said shrugging. "Sides, its not many people that can actually get what passes for a complement from him, and while you didn't quite receive a compliment, you did make him notice you."

"Well whoopee." Slayer said dryly, I made the big bad Batman pay attention to me. Alert the press."

The man chuckled slightly at this. "Well, everyone needs to have a goal in life."

"Yeah sure, whatever. You got a name?" Shadow Slayer asked as she licked her lips, as she looked at the young man in front of them.

"Nightwing." the young man said.

"Hmm, I would of said Hotwings." Shadow Slayer said, as her eyes took in the dark clothing with traces of blue in it. Hair about as long as Knight's which meant, it was just long enough to run your hand through. He had a belt with all sorts of doo dads, and some fighting sticks at his hips. The guy just smiled one of those thousand dollars smiles and the two slayers grinned back.

"You realize, your all enjoying the clothing choices that the other wears way to much, right? Knight asked, taking a protective step forward so that he was Glaring at the first protégé of Batman.

"Can you blame me? Nightwing asked grinning, as his eyes roved over the brunette and the blonde. "I mean seriously! Most of the girls I end up dealing with are trying to kill me Especially this one that has a thing for historical weapons from the family manor and dresses like she's the British Flag."

"Not really." The other guy admitted. "But I just wish the feeling wasn't being returned by them."

"Yeah, well Arsenal is going to kill me, when he finds out I got to meet two beautiful women in leather, and didn't try any bondage tricks with them." The guy said.

"Trust me. Relationships with any of our group, is weirder than any you've believed."

"I don't know, I happen to have some pretty interesting dating stories of mine own."

"We'll have to compare stories sometimes." Knight said, "Maybe when were not all wondering if its fight or flight."

"Good idea," the guy said. "Now I have a message for you, and a question which do you want first?

Question the other man said.

Who are you guys?

"Well, if we go by what this crazy city decides, then I'm Knight, the short one is Shadow Slayer, and the even shorter one is Slayer. Now, what was it you wanted to tell us?"

"You guys need to back off, and let us handle this, we know the territory."

"Yeah, but do you know the occult? Cause that's where we had to go, and we managed to already find a clue." Slayer said, her eyes narrowing, as Hotwings told her not to try and find her sister.

You found something the young man said shocked that this bunch of people had already found something when neither he, nor batman had found anything. Don't suppose you'd be willing to share would you."

"Lets see, you tell us not to get involved, then you asked for our help. What do you think our reaction is going to be?" Nightwing smiled weakly at this, she had a point, and they all knew it.

Knight had fallen back now that his girls were paying attention again, and was now holding a hand to his ear; as he listened to someone communicate with him. "Huh? Yeah. Really? Watcher said that. Dang, so we have to play nice with them. Only if they push us. Right, gotcha I'll pass it along Wicca." He turned to look at the three; the two slayers were stuck between drooling at him and glaring at him. Personally he wouldn't want to be the one to get in-between the group right now. "We have orders from Watcher girls. Someone agreed to meet with us for lunch and talk about everything so I guess we play nice and leave each other alone for now."

Nightwing looked like he wanted to say something, but the warning glares they all gave him helped him keep his remarks to himself. If they were going to get a talk about what was going on, then there wasn't a whole lot that he or any of the others could do about it. He still wish he knew what the clue that they had was, but you just couldn't have everything. He stepped back, and pulled out his rope gun and shot it into the air. "Whoa that part is for real?" Turning he looked at the brunette who was staring at his rope gun.

"And I thought that was all a load of crap. "The blonde said, as she looked at the rope. "Hey, if things work out, maybe you can teach us a bit about how to do that."

"Who knows?" Nightwing said throwing them a mock salute, before he flew into the air, and disappeared into the sky.

"Damn." The three said, as they watched the man disappear.

"I hope we get to be friends, cause that is so much better than our way."

"You said it." Buffy said, as she lifted the lid off the sewer entrance. "Not to mention, it wouldn't stink as bad." As she jumped down, followed by her two friends.

I'm going to shorten Faith's codename to Shadow just because it's faster to say and a word less to write. Although vamps and demons may still call her that seeing as they're big on fancy titles like that. Hope I'm not having her steal another D.C hero's name course what do super heroes due to people that steal there Identity other than beat the person senseless that is.


	15. Chapter 15

D.C owns their universe and for all of those people who thought I owned Buffy I'm sorry to tell you that Joss Whedon does.

I've had this done for a few days but thought it would be fun to post this on halloween.

Can someone tell me who The Shadow is, or at least tell me where I can find a bio on him/her? That way I can have Nightwing make some joke about copyright or something like that, haven't decided.

Okay Question. Should the Scoobies and the Bat Clan actually fight and if yes a simple spar to test their abilities, or a knockout no holds barred free for all? If they fight the second way I all ready have the fighting partners figured. I just want to know, what people want. So hope you can help me with that folks.

Took me forever to decide what this chapter should have in it I actually had to alternate beginnings for this chapter but if I do this right I might be able to use the other beginning for my next chapter.

Sorry it took a while to get this next chap going but I have been having fun doing my Family Reunion story as some of you know and no there are no spoilers or dates for the next chapter here other than I'm 2/3 of the way done with the next chap.

The trio of scoobies walked in from the basement entrance, smelling slightly of sewage. Despite the extensive work, that two of them had in this town, they still hadn't figured out a non-smelly way to travel under the city. A good place to start looking, since it was where most of the ugly demons that stalked the city of crime hung out. At least part of the time, the two students had assured their friend. The three had just entered the building, and were all currently trying to wash the stink out of their skin and hair. While Willow was working on hacking her way through the police files, and various papers to find out what it was that they had gotten themselves wrapped up in this time. The fact that only the demons seemed to have any clues right now, did not mean much. But it could mean, that this was purely a mystical or hell spawn problem. And the string of other kidnappings could just be a coincidence. That was believable, if one didn't count the fact there was a ransom note with none of the usual threats. Like a promise to gut Dawn if a Slayer interfered. Nope, despite only demons having clues to give. This was totally connected to the other kidnappings, which meant that after they found the warehouse, sooner or later they would have to work with the bat patrol. Hopefully they could work together, preferably without killing each other.

"You two go get cleaned up." Buffy said, "I want to talk to Will about what all we learned." The other two nodded, as they went to find showers. "And Faith. The lead slayer called up in afterthought. "Stay off of Xander, I don't think that Robin would be very polite about it to him."

"You really are a downer sometimes B." Faith said, as she looked longingly at Xander, who just smirked at the slayer.

"Then go grab some food, but no after slayage sex with the Xander shaped friend." Buffy and Willow chuckled, as they heard the return insults of their friend. "Now then, here's the address of where were going tomorrow." Buffy said, as she tossed a piece of scrap paper with the info on it, at her witchy computer hacking friend. She then told Willow about all of the various demonic safe houses, they had taken down. "I'm telling you Will, I haven't ever seen places this protected. Especially, not mainly from regular humans, unless you count Metropolis, and we were only there for a few days."

"So, we got people who think that Batman's some type of monster, and that's how he controls the population."

"Yeah, and I don't doubt that he's earned his reputation. The only problem that I can foresee, is if he thinks that demons shouldn't be killed. I mean seriously, I'm all for letting him take on the plain old regular cases with people trying to kill each other, and rob banks if he wants to. As long as he leaves the whole blood sucking monster problem, to me. He can even take all of the super villains! All I want to do, is work in the background, of his background."

"Well, depending on how badly you did during the whole first contact thing."

"Thanks, you really know how to make a person feel better." Buffy grumbled, as she sniffed at her clothes, curling her nose in disgust. "Look, as fun as this is, I really need to go clean this junk off, before it decided it likes where it's at."

"I don't know." The red head said. "It kind of looks like, you just got out of the mosh pit."

"Trust me Will's, that would have been preferable than walking through all the slime that I had to wade through." Buffy said, as she leaned against a doorframe, not wanting to sit in any of the chairs, when she was like this. "As it is, I think even your magic is going to be pushed. Look at this, we got demon ooze, and sewer slime, all over our clothes." "Anything new and interesting show up on your end of this?" She asked, nodding toward the computer area.

"Nope." The Witch said glaring at the super computer. "Though to be fair, that's partly because, someone has been trying to hack into the government's files on us. Yours in particular were being attacked."

"What! Buffy said, sitting up straighter. "You mean to tell me that the goddess of computers nearly got stomped? You have those things updated nearly every other week, so that it would be virtually impossible to break in and get those files. And you added magic to the defenses."

"I know, and whoever it was, was good. They nearly got past the third ring of protection, before I even noticed that they were there, and that was with me online."

"Were you able to trace, whoever it was?"

"Almost. Whoever it was, is somewhere in Gotham. Other than that, I don't really have a whole lot of clues. But I do have some pretty good guesses."

"That's all you were able to get?" Buffy asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise, at the lack of information her friend had on the hacker.

Willow shrugged in annoyance. "They're really good, it will take a long time before I'll be able to come up with anything to trace them with though."

"All right," Buffy said. "I'm gonna go, and get cleaned up." She tossed her jacket over her shoulder after that. "We'll finish this later." The knocking on the door interrupted anything else, she might have said. "Crap." The Slayer complained, as she stared at her clothes once more, before dashing for the stairs.

Chuckling lightly, Willow shut the entrance to Scooby central, before she went to go and answer the door. She had done a quick magic check before she opened the door. She knew there was a security system, that let the person see who was out there, but it was easier, and more efficient to use magic. Maybe she could make a scrying stone, or something like that, before she left. She opened the door, and saw the two people standing there waiting. One was a really hot looking woman, about her height, with a Hispanic look to her, but despite the business suit she wore she had a tough look to her. The man could have been a clone of Robin Wood in his rumpled suit. The main difference between this guy, and Robin, was that he wore heavily tinted glasses.

"Good evening ma'm. Sorry to disturb you, we're here to talk to Miss Summers." The woman said, smiling at her. This will only take a moment, then we'll be out of your hair."

"Sorry, but she's busy right now. Mind if I ask whom you are?"

"Sure," the woman said, as she pulled a black wallet like thing out of her jacket. "Detective Montoya, this is my partner Crispus." (That is the guy's name right? And what the heck is his last name?)

"Like in, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'? Willow had stiffened slightly, at the fact that there were cops here. At the same time, that Faith was actually in the house.

"Same spelling Miss." The dark skinned man said, smiling easily.

"Right, well Buffy's in the shower right now, so she'll be down in a minute. If you'll wait a moment." She stepped back, and gave a silent invitation to the two. Some survival habits were just too far ingrained in them, for them to do anything else. Neither of the officers seemed bothered, by the lack of a vocal invitation, as they entered and were shown to a waiting room.

"Nice place you got here." The man said idly, as he looked around the room appreciatively. He eyed all the various edged weapons on display in the room with wonder, Montoya nodded in agreement. But her eyes seemed to dart toward the hidden corners, which could hold a person without it being too obvious, that someone was there. "And just what exactly is your relationship with Miss Summer's?" The man asked, turning back to the red head.

"There a particular reason you're trying to know more about Buff?" Xander asked, as he walked into the room, his hair still wet from the recent shower. He was clad in some of his sweats, as he calmly walked into the room, but still seemed to be a slightly scary presence. Willow chuckled at this, Xander was already feeling angry about letting Dawn go on a date. Now someone questioning his favorite redhead, without any known reason, was a sure way to get him to bring out, protective big brother Xander.

"We will explain this to Miss Summers." The detective said, though he was now facing Xander, and looked ready to duke it out if he had to. Willow smiled at this, if the guy wanted to commit suicide, then she would let him. While Xander may not be the best fighter ever, he could take a lot of damage, before he stayed down.

Xander watched the two cops, as he went to one of the corners Montoya had been eyeing. "You'll have to wait shades, she's in the shower." He crossed his arms, and waited for the man to make a move.

"And what exactly is your relationship with Miss Summers?" Montoya asked Willow repeating her partner's question. The red head thought about the answer for a moment. Either she could tell the detective that they were part of a worldwide monster/demon-hunting group, or they could go with the old school routine.

"Well, Will's here is the brainiac, I'm the comic relief, and when Buff gets down here I guess you could say that she's either the body, or something like that. And when you put us all together, you got the scoobies. The original outcasts of Sunneydale high." Xander struck a semi heroic pose after that.

"Would school friends, have been too hard to say?"

"Told you, I'm the comic relief." Xander said, as if that explained everything. "Now the question is, why isn't anyone laughing?"

"Do you want an honest answer to that?" Crispus asked, as he looked at Montoya with an almost exasperated look.

"Nah, not really. I think I prefer to live in the river that is De Nile. Although that is a great place to visit. "

"And when were you in Africa?"

"You don't really think my skin got this dark in California do you?" He asked, as he pulled the sleeves of his shirt up, to show extremely dark skin. "I spent six months in Africa. I was on a kind of sabbatical, after my girlfriend died." The pain in his eye was obvious to the two detectives, who had lost friends of their own. He grinned halfheartedly at their knowing looks. "I lost my eye, then a few days later I broke Buff's trust, I kind of got that back, then I lost my girlfriend to a bunch of monsters."

"I'm sorry for your lost sir."

"Don't be, he said darkly. She went down fighting from what I understand, I couldn't ask for anything more from her."

"Hey guys," Buffy said, as she entered, an angry scowl on her face. Willow wondered briefly, if it was because of what Xander had said. Or because they had made it, so that she had been forced, to take a really quick shower instead of the long one that she had wanted.

She turned to look at the two cops. "You had something you wanted to say to me? Or were you just trading war stories with Xander?"

The two cops looked slightly guilty at each other, realizing that this was a tender subject with all of them, not just the young man. "Yes Miss Summers, we do have something to talk to you about." Crispus said, "you might want to sit down Miss Summers, and you may, or may not want these two to leave for a moment." He said, nodding to Xander and Willow.

Buffy snorted at this. "Right, and I actually trust a bunch of cops." She said dryly. as she leaned back into the wall next to some of the throwing knives. "I at the very least, trust those guys with my life and back" The three shared a knowing smile, as if it had some hidden meaning, which only they knew.

"Very well, your sister has been kidnapped. We are currently doing our best to find her, and we have all of our resources being put into finding her, and the other people that have disappeared in similar circumstances."

Buffy nodded, "I figured something was up when she didn't come home at one. She said, she glanced at the clock that showed it was nearing three. "You guys sure do take your time on some of these things, don't you?" The detectives bristled slightly at this, but she ignored them, as she switched topics on them back to what they were really talking about. "Xander and I," she nodded to her friend. "Have already been to almost all of her various haunts, and have yet to find something. While Will's here, has been inside doing some house sitting, while we went and looked."

"Well to be honest we didn't even know about your sister being with Timothy Drake until a few minutes ago when Mr. Drake asked how you had taken the news.There a particular reason you didn't tell anybody yet, that you thought that your sister was missing?" Montoya asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"You mean despite the fact, that I might be an overprotective big sister, and my little sister stayed out late on her date? Gee let me think about it." The blonde replied as she placed her hand on her head, as if she was in serious thought.

"Point taken Miss Summer's." Montoya said, as she heard the logic behind the other girl's lack of fear.

"Personally I think we should wait for the kidnappers call us, and offer us to take her back." Xander said from his corner

"Xander you're not helping." Buffy said sending a mild glare at her dark haired friend.

"Yeah," Willow said her eyes narrowing. "Besides, Dawnie isn't Little Red Chief."

"Who?"

"A book Xan. Something that you decided not to read, despite it being required.

"Oh yeah, I saw the movie instead." The man said.

"So what kind of ransom do they want?" Buffy asked, curious despite herself, since she knew that there had been no ransom note for the police to collect.

"These kidnappers are good, there's no denying that, but we have the best in the city on this case. For the most part, the kidnappers have wanted around a quarter million from you miss summers. Or, if they were to find out that you had some kind of pull with someone high up in politics. They may ask for you to whisper a few things in that person's ear, on such and such a date."

"Yeah? Well personally, I think there going to be in for a few surprises." Buffy said in her cryptic way that was confusing the cops. And, they will probably wet themselves, when they realize, just who it is they have."

"Lets just say we have friends in high places, that you don't want to mess with." Xander said, at the curious looks, which were being thrown given.

"Very well, we will keep you apprised of the situation Miss Summers, and I think you'd be better off letting us handle the situation."

"Get her back before we do, and we won't cause too much trouble. But know this officer, the three of us are real good about finding the things, that most people prefer to ignore. And we will, be searching for things to work with. But we'll try to stay out of your way, as much as possible."

"Understandable." Crispus said, Montoya had nodded, as if she actually understood what, it was that they felt.

"If that's all, then we really have to get some sleep. And I'm sure that you guys, have to sleep some time as well. Because coffee and doughnuts can only take you so far, before you're really to tired to do anything." Willow said as she got up from her seat. "If we hear from Dawnie, we'll call you." She assured the two detectives.

"Well that was fun." Xander said sarcastically, as he locked the door behind the two people.

"Yeah right." Faith said, as she finally came downstairs, She was wearing a satisfied grin on her face, indicating that she had been happily enclosed in the shower, during most of the conversation. Buffy and Xander just threw her dirty looks, before they headed for the kitchens to get some food, the other two followed after them, to get some after slayage and questioning snackage. They also had to discuss what little information they had gotten from the cops.

"Well that was interesting." Crispus said, as he sat in the car with his partner.

"Yes it was." Montoya said, "Did you notice, that they seemed almost resigned to the fact that something had already happened, and weren't really all that surprised, with what we were saying."

"So your thinking, they may know more than what they seemed to?"

"Did you see their eyes Crispus? Those were the eyes of survivors, the only people I've seen that look like that, are NML survivors."

"You sure their that hard?" Her partner sounded skeptical, Montoya sometimes wondered, why she had been partnered with someone like him. "They seemed like your typical bunch of weird Californian college kids to me."

Montoya shrugged her shoulders, not willing to say anything right now. "I want to see what kind of information it is that we have on them. Because something was slightly off about them, and I'd like to know what exactly it is that seemed wrong about them."

"I think your imaging things," the man said, "but if it will make you feel better, then we'll do it. Who knows, maybe they'll have a large police file that we can examine." The man said jokingly, as they drove off.

Gotham Police Department "All of this, is them? Crispus asked, as he looked at the thick folders that were placed in front of them. 

"Yeah." The man in charge of records said, as he scratched a spot behind his ear. "Someone else, had asked about them a few weeks ago, but we only recently got our hands on their records. Seems that all of the originals were lost when the town collapsed."

"Great." The detective said, hoping that Montoya didn't give him to hard of a time for jinxing the side investigation, she wanted done on these people.

"So, who's file do you want?" He asked, as he set the four files down on the shared desk.

"That's their information?" Montoya asked in shock.

"Yeah, I was pretty surprised to." The man admitted, as he grabbed the Harris folder and flipped to the basic information on him. "According to this, the guy was always getting into situations that he couldn't get out of. He barely scraped up a score high enough to get through school. He also has a rap sheet as long as my arm. He would seem like your typical goof ball, if wasn't for robbing the military." He tossed the sheet to his partner, who was getting ready to open the Rosenberg file. She widened her eyes slightly at the glance that she had given the paper. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but when people like this come through town aren't they supposed come up on the alert board or something? Yet this guy has been here for a few months a least considering he's enrolled at one of the universities."

"Well according to this file, Rosenberg shouldn't even be in the U.S. She's supposed to be somewhere in South America." Her rap sheet is just as bad as his though." She said, as she handed him the paper, the detectives shook their heads.

They both looked uneasily at the next folder, which was uncomfortably thicker than the other two folders. Sighing Crispus opened it, and saw the basic information. "And this rap sheet is the worse." He said, as he handed her the papers on the slightly ditzy like blonde that they had just met.

"Looks like your instincts were right again." Crispus said, as he leaned back in his chair. "We got a bunch of former small time gangsters in the big city. They will probably be looking for blood, now that a member of their family has been taken."

"Well its not like the case wasn't already difficult enough as it was." Montoya, said as she got up. "Maybe we can sic Bullock on them. She suggested, "He should be able to scare a bit of sense into that bunch of tough wannabes."

"As long as their wannabe's." Crispus said from where he was still sitting. "If you think he's up to the challenge, all right. After all, what's the worst that could happen?"

"He tries to arrest them for interfering in police business. And they go berserk and turn out to be a group of meta-humans." She replied while Crispus just scowled at her.

Montoya smiled, as she went and knocked on the door that led to the office of Detective Bullock. The giant man was, arguably the toughest and meanest cop in Gotham. Only two other people had more arrests under their belts than he did. Gordan was one, but he was retired now, the other was the Bat.

**Gotham Airport**

A private plane landed, and quickly taxied its way into the hanger that had been reserved for it, and its passengers. Some of the leaders of the Gotham crime syndicates, that had banded together to request the people on the plane, waited as the ramp came down. Three dark clothed figures calmly walked down the steps. "Greetings sir, we know that you're busy, and all and that making this trip, must have been boring. The Godfather of the Italian mafia said, nodding toward the group.

"Yes," his Russian counterpart said nodding. "We have of course compiled lists, of all the police, and our own efforts to locate these people . We have also, assembled a retrieval team, that will be on hand to provide the extra muscle, you will need when you find them." The leader of the group merely nodded, and a glare at one member of his team quieted the man. They were three, there was the half-shaven man who looked like he had been in a rather tough spot lately, a dark skinned man with a shaved head that despite his clothes had the look of the streets in his eyes. The leader of the group, the few women there could only have described the brown haired man as Angelic looking. His piercing brown eyes, and wavy brown hair enhanced his other facial features. The three were dressed in dark colors, which almost made them seem to disappear, into the shadows.

The mafia bosses spread out, as the threesome came down the steps. While the scruffy man, was going through the mafia files that were being thrust at him. The other dark skinned man, was dealing with the police and Interpol files, being thrust at him. "So tell me gentlemen." The new C.E.O of Wolfram and Hart and former detective said, his jacket flapping in the breeze. "Why the hell do you even need our assistance? If this is really and truly your town, you should never have let something like this happen."

The men shrugged, some of them looked annoyed, while other embarrassed and others seemed indifferent. "We haven't been able to permanently take out the bat either." One man said, as he lighted a cigarette and puffed away at one of the other representative's face. "But were still thriving here, despite the fact we have that pain in the ass on our backs all the time."

"You'll deal with that problem on your own man." The black man said as he scanned the group. "We won't get involved in that. We just agreed to come and help you find all of these kids."

"Now ain't that just the sweetest thing." A blonde man with a heavy accent said.

The leader and the unshaven man rolled their eyes, as the black man walked up to the man. "Listen pal, I don't see you coming up with any great plans to find those kids. So, unless you want to be blue all over, I suggest that you back off right now."

"No thanks." The man said, with a reckless grin, as a knife popped out of his hands, and he lunged at the man. The knife was coming in low, in a move that was meant to open the bottom part of his stomach. The man twisted out of the way, and tripped the man causing him to go down. Still moving, the man clad in a business suit, then brought his fist down twice. One shot hit the arm, numbing the limb; the other hit the small of his back, causing muscles spasm that made the man drop his knife.

He stood back up, and adjusted his clothes with his free hand, since he still held all of the papers he had been going through in his other.

Squatting down next to the man, the leader looked unimpressed at the man. "If this is typical of your extra muscle, then there could be trouble."

"Don't worry. This man, was here just as basic security" One of the godfather's assured them, scowling at the crumpled form laying on the ground.

Another man beckoned to the car, that they would be loaning them for their stay in Gotham. "Your car awaits you, Mr. Angel."

Was this update faster for all of you who gave me the about the amount of time it took to update last time despite the fact I topld you all that I had a broken computer and lost two and a half chapters. Sheesh you guys can be picky sometimes.

As for all the facts that the Bat is to weak I'll try to work on it.

Like Jordi's visor okay whatever floats your boat I just said Cyke cause he was the first to come to mind.

As for Buffy becoming sophisticated well Buffy has always been good at hiding her intelligence to everyone you don't go get invited to teach a class in your first year of psycology without some brains.


	16. Chapter 16

Don't own a thing Joss and Mutant academy own the Buffy verse while D.C owns their universe.

Okay this chapter just somehow kept on growing till it's the lovely length that you see it at now somewhere around 25 pages I do believe, if you don't count the disclaimer and the blabbering part here. On with the Answers to all of your great questions and comments!

Another update and it's a long chap now everyone can go to bed happy tonight, or at least satisfied.

To all those people who came through with info on Shadow thank you. Can't believe though that it was all for a hero that is retired though. Enter embarrassed grin.

Ok **Doza,** maybe you didn't notice but the only one to refer to themselves by the code names was Xander and that was because that was right in front of Nightwing. Hell I almost had Buffy slip when she first entered the demon side of the bar or I thought I did. And your right I am being a bit one sided though that in part is due to being more of a marvel fan than anything else so I'm stumbling my way through the DCU I'll try to be more fair but the Scoobies have done their own fair amount of fighting without really having any kind of leader and no formal training cause you don't cause a military project to cut its losses for just being an airhead bunch. On the other hand, you don't survive NML for being a pansy either. As for the names what can I say it was late and they don't seem any worse than a robot calling itself the Red Tornado or a guy naming himself Arsenal cause he has a lot of weapons. And keep telling me whats wrong it does help.

How come only one person responded to my question? Oh well **ALKymi** yours and mine are the only opinions I guess.

**Damia** thanks for the supportive review though you and **Doza** make good points I'll just have to wait and see maybe flip a coin to decide a winner if they fight.

AS long as you never tell my mother that secret**General Mac** It doesn't bug me that much.

"Um" Stands for talk

'Um' for thoughts

Alfred looked at the cafe skeptically, as he entered it. Normally, he didn't care to dine at places like this, since the cooks didn't tend to spice things correctly. The only times he came to these kinds of places, was when master Bruce had a business meeting with someone, that duty dictated he be polite to. 'Hopefully he could stand it for one meal.' He thought to himself. Especially, if he could meet this long-lived Slayer, that Rupert was bragging to him about. Goodness knows, master Bruce was being slightly more hard headed than usual about this meeting of his. He had almost insisted that Master Dick, or Miss Cassandra come along for this meeting. The older man sighed again, as he walked into the back room. Most likely, there would be three or four different people here who would lead him from this place, to another. The Council had always had a flair for the dramatics, and he doubted that had changed even slightly, since he had last been around them.

The room had a round table in the center, with various appetizers that were probably supposed to tempt him. He walked up and raised his eyes slightly. The food here, looked more like a cross between what Master Dick and Master Timothy would eat. While there was no old cereal with orange juice instead of milk, there was doughnuts, pizza, ribs and baked potatoes. Shaking his head he wondered just who had trained this slayer, that she would actually eat these kinds of foods. Alfred had certainly not let the boys eat like this, in fact he made sure that the boys knew just how he felt about such behavior. He was sure, that the two young Masters, had just been ruined in some ways. Health wise ruined that is, by the people who brought them up, before he had gotten his hands on them.

"So you're the watcher, for mister I'm big and bad?" A voice said, Alfred merely raised his eyes, as he turned to look at the source of the voice. A young blonde woman stood there in front of him, partially hidden by a plant. She was dressed simply, and in dark clothing, the trench coat hanging on her seeming to swallow her as effectively, as some of the capes that he had seen worn by various heroes and villains.

He recognized her from the files hat he had seen last night. This was Buffy Summers: Arsonist extraordinaire.

"Miss. Summers." He said, nodding his head in her direction, as he removed his bowler hat and hooked his umbrella on his arm.

"And you are?" She challenged, Alfred worked to hide his surprise. It was one thing to hear about a Slayer that didn't have a high tolerance for watchers, it was quiet another to see such a Slayer.

"I am Alfred Pennyworth, former Watcher."

"Great to meet you. She said, in what seemed like an attempt to be polite. "Now, call up your friends, and tell them to met us on the roof."

"Excuse me?"

"Sure, I mean we can't really be expected to be polite to each other, if we aren't even around each other now can we?" She didn't even bother to wait for him to answer, before she continued. "And since we didn't think that you'd trust any food that you hadn't at least run one of those detection spells, we thought we'd just leave the food out for you to inspect."

"I am afraid that I do not know those spells, I studied the theory, but it was for the most part frowned on for Watchers to study any type of magic."

"Another one of those Dumb rules we trashed." She muttered to herself. "So, I guess your boss will just have to trust us that we don't plan on drugging him with anything." The girl said, as she pulled out a box and began piling food into it. "Of course, if you have a rooftop that you think he'd prefer, then he's welcome to pick, that way he won't feel like were going to be leading him into a trap."

"Yes, my employer will probably feel more at ease if he can choose the place where we meet."

"So call the big bad pointy-eared guy, while I finish up with this."

The butler moved off to the side, and dialed up the number that was connected to the cave. "Sir, I am sure that you heard everything, with one of the listening devices that you placed on my person."

"I did," the emotionless tone of the Batman responded to the slight reprimand. "Though when you said her name all's I got was a burst of static. An intriguing method of not letting an eavesdropper know what you are saying while you let them listen in all the same. Nightwing, Huntress Batgirl and myself will make an appearance, with Catwoman and Black Canary providing backup."

"Huntress?" The butler said, surprised that his employer was going to allow the black sheep of the city to do this kind of work.

"She has a personal stake in this case, as does everyone else. No one will truly be working without some part of that hindering us. Hopefully, combining ourselves we shall be able to let enough of that emotion be hidden, in an effort to prove that the very self same emotions don't rule us. Or would you prefer it if I let Nightwing and Huntress loose on someone?"

Alfred shivered at that, things tended to explode when those two got together. "Do you have a preferred location, or should they just wait for you on the roof of just any building?" Alfred said, now ignoring the sarcasm, which only master Bruce could manage, and still sound absolutely serious.

"We'll meet them over Crime Alley. There are enough buildings overlooking there, that we can easily get to a trouble spot without to many problems."

"And may I ask how they are supposed to get up there? As I recall from the conversation that the young Master had with them, they don't have access to a multitude of aerial methods."

"It will be a good test to see just what level of power that they can manage, and to test their resourcefulness. Batman out."

Alfred sighed, as he turned around, and saw that the girl already had managed to fit large amounts of the food into a large duffel bag.

"We shall be meeting on one of the buildings overlooking Crime Alley. Do you have the methods to get there?"

"Yeah, we might have to make a bit of a side trip, but we can make it what about you?"

"Oh yes, I happen to have a few methods in getting through places like that."

"Cool. We'll meet you there." The girl said as she shouldered the bag. "All right Willow, beam me up." The girl was gone in a flash of light, as she was magically transported. Alfred kept his surprised contained, and merely quirked an eyebrow as he watched her disappear from the room.

**

* * *

**

The Batman gracefully landed on one of the skyscrapers, which overlooked Crime Alley. He looked at the edge, and remembered coming to this spot many times, to jump down into the pit. He looked down at the festering wound that was the remains of his parent's death. Shaking his head, he turned back, and watched as Nightwing made the usual acrobatic landing that he was known for. Batgirl, much like him merely appeared, as if from nowhere. While Huntress just swung onto the rooftop, though she kept far enough away to make an attempt at an escape if she needed to.

"So is this the place?" A voice asked, turning he nodded to the girl that was floating in the air in front of him. 'Definitely a meta of some type. Her body appeared to be engulfed in a soft white light, and she had red hair that looked like it was bleached somehow.'

"Geez, you could at least give me a verbal answer." The woman said, she muttered some words, and a bright flash later three others had joined them.

"One of these days your going to have to learn to give us some warning about that." One person said, complaining as he attempted to adjust to the new surroundings.

'This must be the person that Nightwing had referred to as the one to talk to, as he seemed to have a bit of a mouth on him.'

"So where's the English dude?" Another figure said, "or did we all move to fast for him to get here."

"He'll be here." Batman grunted.

"All right," the first one of the group to arrive, and possibly the most powerful of the group said. "Sheesh, not a real conversationalist are you?"

'The question right now though, was had it really been easier this way to find the correct spot for them, or had it been nothing more than a show of power?' Batman grimaced; 'if it had been careless thinking, then it could easily put this young woman on the same level as Strangefate, or possibly even Zattana.' "I did not come here to make with small talk." Batman replied, as he let his cape wrap around him.

"Really? Cause I was sure that was what this whole meeting was about." The young woman that he had already seen before said, she stretched casually like any good gymnast would. She had the walk of a half trained warrior of various disciplines, with a mixture of a street fighter, as well. She also had the bounce, of either a cheerleader, or a gymnast. The woman that had been floating moments ago had the movements of someone that was more used to hanging in the back, but would lead if she had to. The young man had the movements of a soldier just barely visible, almost as if they were unconsciously there, but were for the most part ignored, which might point to either a military dropout, or someone raised on an army based. The last member of the team was pure street fighter, with just the smallest amount of any formal training.

"So is anybody hungry?" The man asked, as he grabbed some doughnuts, along with some bottles of Sunny Delight.

Nightwing and Huntress had to stifle their laughs, as the man was oblivious to the scowl that he was receiving from Batman. "Foxy lady, you want anything?"

Now Nightwing was coughing, at the look of annoyance that Huntress had, and the slightly darkening glare that Batman had.

"Down boy," one of the girls said. "Besides, with your luck with women, she's probably either a used to be bad guy, or demonic in some way. Do you really want to get into all of that again?"

The man held his chin, as if pondering the question before shaking his head no. "So which of those do you fall under?" He asked.

"Slightly crazy person trained by assassins." Huntress said, smirking at him, and shooting a daring look at Nightwing for him to argue, while she twirled her crossbow.

"What kind of range do you get with that?" The girl with the Chicago accent asked, as she eyed the small weapon.

"The way it's shaped, sometimes makes it a bit of a pain, but it also makes for a pretty mean shot. As for range, well I can hit something at about a hundred and forty yards without having to work at it, if the target is moving then I'll more than likely need to be ten yards closer to be positive."

"Nice, Slayer said. "Our psycho over there is good with the crossbow, but for some reason has this complete fascination with the longbow."

"Oh come on, the Robin Hood look a like manages just fine with it." The girl argued.

Batman gritted his teeth, the mindless banter was quickly getting on his nerves. And he thought it was bad when Wally and Kyle got started, this was just as irritating, if not more so, mainly because he could at least shut them up if he needed to. The young man with a visor was actually eating, and after running a quick check for chemicals Nightwing was as well, though he did seem to be trying to get information out of him. Batgirl looked at the food for a moment, but since her mask didn't allow a person to eat or drink, she remained on silent watch though she did watch the way the three women interacted. Batman had to be happy about that, even if by some chance one of those girls could stand up to him, they would fall to the abilities that Cassie had.

The group turned as a small helicopter landed Alfred quickly exited the machine, after he had shut it down. "What you haven't started fighting yet?" He said in mock shock, though Bruce and Dick could here the relief in his voice. He was currently wearing his hat turned down low, and had managed to pick up his over coat, hiding a large amount of his face from view.

"Yeah, its kind of hard when he's standing there and just brooding." The blonde said as she jerked her thumb at him. Batman raised his eyebrow slightly; he had not noticed her slip up beside him and watch his city alongside him. Alfred nodded, and opened a folding chair and sat himself down. Batman turned to take one more quick look at his city before he joined the group, hopefully they wouldn't try a number of jokes to start communication. "It speaks to you, doesn't it?" The young woman said more than asked, the partial mask blocked the view to her face, but her voice gave left her inner feelings visible.

"What does?"

"Your city," she said waving at the ground that was far below them. "It tells you when things are wrong, you can feel the very soul of your city, and know almost exactly what it is that you need to do to protect her."

"I do not have time for these types of talks Slayer," he said.

She actually smirked at him though there did appear to be a slight grimace as well. "So where did you pick that up?"

"The Bartender was kind enough to give that information to Nightwing." He turned to see Alfred ready to begin.

"You may not acknowledge that your city talks to you. but it does. Just like my town used to talk to me. "

"And what happened to your town?" He had an idea, but having her confirm it would be useful.

"It was destroyed." She said softly as she remembered something or other.

Memories of Jordan flashed through Batman's mind, as he heard that, causing him to tense up.

Slayer continued as if she hadn't even noticed, a far away look in her eyes. The last few weeks that I was there I could feel her pain, and to save the world I had to destroy her. Tell me if you had to choose between Gotham and the world, which would you, choose?"

"Gotham." He answered without hesitating.

"Even if it meant that for a while, that you were free from all of this?" She said, as she pointed to her own mask. "Or even harder, what if it meant that a focal point of the darkness was gone?"

"For every one of us that there is there are tests of the body, soul and mind that we have to face Slayer." He said, as he considered her words. "Should we even be the ones that destroy the test?"

"Maybe not, but such tests don't have set rules, she countered, "and more often than not you break one set of bindings, and you find new ones, or find that the game you played was only a small part of the real game."

"You have thought of these things often then. He said, more than slightly curious now.

"I began thinking of them after my seventeenth birthday." She said, "I don't deny your ruler ship in this city, but I also know that there's a part of your city that doesn't get watched. A part of the shadows, you just brush against from time to time. I don't like magic, neither do you, but I fight the mystical forces while you push it off to someone else until it comes to your attention. I don't want to become a name that the world for the most part knows. I'm not Wonder Woman, Superman or even you. You three fight the aliens and people from alternate dimensions. Me, I just want to fade back into the shadows, and fight the monsters that no one believes in

"This case has changed that. Even if what happens only stays between the small group here it has changed."

She smiled as they looked at their teams; his was comfortable in the combination of Kevlar, spandex, body armor and concealing masks. Hers were slightly odd feeling dressed to fight with no monster threatening the world, dressed in something that to them was closer to Halloween costumes, than fighting clothes. Only one member of her entire team seemed truly comfortable dressed in the leather outfits.

"Does this mean we have a peace while we look for these people?"

"A truce." He said in agreement. "If you insist on working in my town, then I have one main rule that you may not break, or I will take you and you team down."

"Sounds good, what is it?" She asked not reacting to the threat.

"No killing."

"Does that stand for just humans, or no killing at all?"

"No human deaths."

"Then we won't have any problems. But monsters like demons, vampires and stuff then we break the rules. Though we need to talk about the half-breeds before we can decide on anything. Cause I don't want to kill anything with a soul if I can help it."

"Understood." He grunted, "we will discuss any other rules later." Before he crouched on an air conditioner vent. Shrugging, the girl sat down on one of the statues, seeming at home with the monstrous statue.

"So, which of you young ladies exactly am I here to meet with?" The butler asked, as he hooked his black umbrella onto his arm.

"Well we're both slayers." The brunette said shrugging at the older man.

Faith watched the man warily; he was already getting on her nerves due to the proper pansy BS that he was throwing at them. Wes used to be like that, he nearly killed her when he acted like that. In more ways than one if you got right down to it. First there was the annoying factor, and there was the trying to send her to jolly old England, to see the dear old understanding Council of idiots.

The man just raised his eyebrow slightly at the brunette, as if he sensed her mental cursing before he turned to the other two who nodded in confirmation.

"Yeah, and well since were not all that comfortable with names yet, why don't you call her B, the goof ball X. The good witch of the North over there, I guess you can call Red, as for me you can call me F. And I think we'll all be five y five with that."

"What about your codenames?" Alfred asked.

"Were still getting used to the whole concept of masks. There is no way that we really need the whole new names thing." The girl that had been introduced as Red said.

"You wear a mask, and while you have not impressed me in most of the things you have done, I will admit you intrigue me enough that I will give you the benefit of the doubt that you can work in my city." Batman said from his position, ignoring the glare Huntress was giving him, and the dropped jaw that Nightwing had. "If you are going to hide behind those masks, then you will use the names you were given last night."

"But," the red head started, but was cut off by the infamous Bat glare.

"Geez big guy, you and B must have gone to school together to learn that glare."

Batman ignored the sarcastic mouth, which was more in tune with what Ollie or Arsenal might say. He then pointed to them one by one, and gave then the names that they had been given the other night. "Slayer, Wicca Knight and Shadow Slayer. You may shorten it to Shadow, since I doubt that the man to originally hold that name, will care if you borrow his name."

"Why do I feel like I'm back in school with the principle?" The young man said, as they all nodded, though Slayer had returned his glare back with equal hardness.

"My rules." He replied before she could say anything. "It will keep you hidden, and keep people out of danger, if someone or something comes after you. And may remind you the seriousness of what we are doing."

Batman watched them as they considered his words watching Slayer the most, they would follow her lead despite the fact that Wicca had more raw power. So she was the one that had to understand, that this was the way things worked in his city. She and Shadow Slayer had a large amount of untapped potential, whether he would help them tap that potential or not, was up to debate at the moment. Giving one final glare Slayer nodded in defeat. He heard a couple of surprised gasps from her team, but they nodded as well. He then gave a slight nod to Alfred to begin.

The English man sat down in the chair that he had brought, and waited to see if the young heroes would start with the explanations first, or if he would have to. He noticed that while they were here, instead of watching the true dangers that were the Bat family they were watching him instead. They seemed slightly anxious, and looked ready to bolt at any moment. What had the Council done to them, that they felt like they had to be ready to make an escape or fight for their lives just by having lunch with him?

"Well I suppose introductions are in order. I am Alfred, I work for Batman." He said nodding to the man who looked like he was only half paying attention. "I understand that all of you met his former partner last night as well." He said, as he waved at Nightwing.

"Hotwings? Yeah we kind of met him." The brunette said nodding. "Does he have a girlfriend?"

"Um last I checked you have a boyfriend of your own." Slayer said grinning. "Remember him? He's the tall dark and handsome guy, you didn't want to go to a conference with."

"Doesn't mean a girl can't have some fun though." The brunette argued, a small smile gracing her lips, as she looked at the slim, broad shouldered hunk, she had briefly met the other night in an alley, and was now popping grapes into his mouth.

"If she wasn't dating someone, I would feel almost sorry for you." Slayer said to the Bludhaven Knight.

"Ahem, ladies." Alfred said trying his best to appear stern.

Knight snorted as the slayers ignored the obvious hint. "Word of advice Alf, he said, "don't ever try and get between those two and their bad jokes. Especially if you're a Watcher, or someone they don't trust."

"May I inquire why that may be sir?"

"Sure, the young man said. "When they get really angry, they get really short. With their tempers that is, they don't have growing powers or anything, just the usual enhanced everything."

The two young women in question coughed warningly at the joker, the young man just grinned at them before grabbing a doughnut.

Alfred looked at the young man for a moment. "You sir, are truly one of the most interesting Watchers, that I have ever, had the pleasure of meeting. Though I must admit I am confused how you got here, considering the fact that your superior told me that there was no Watcher that had the courage to deal with the lead Slayer."

The young man gagged on his doughnut, and the three women started laughing. "Oh, I so did not see that one coming." The Brunette said laughing, her entire body shaking in amusement.

"You should have seen your face!" Slayer said, her face brightening up, as she let the emotions take her.

"I take it I missed something." Alfred said turning to the young man who, was now leaning against the wall in shock, and banging his head against the wall.

"Um yeah, something like that." He said, "I am not a watcher I'm a friend, a partner in fighting evil things that go bump in the night. But I'm not one of those crazy Watchers that doesn't have anymore sense than to try and control those two." He nodded in the direction of the two slayers. "I mean seriously, do I look like a tweed wearing, tea sipping bookworm type?" He gave a grin that was cocky and full of light, by the slight hardness in his voice showed that much of the mirth the group displayed was forced.

'It was interesting that someone could control their emotions so well, and by the looks of it he hadn't had any official training.' Batman wondered if maybe Nightwing had been mistaken about which one to try and get information from.

"Sides, I've seen what happens when you try and make them do something they don't like. A mischievous grin, now on his face, as he started remembering. "That one blew a van off the road while she was inside it, when they wanted her to go to Jolly old England." He said nodding proudly to one of the girls. "And Slayer threw a sword at a guy's head when his boss tried to play power games with her, and he interrupted her speech on how the rules had changed. One of my best memories by the way." He said glancing at the blonde who was blushing. "Next to the one that you offering me an early Birthday present that day." He added with a wink, this comment just earned him a death glare. A cough from Batman silenced them, but a promise of later pain was guaranteed.

"Wait, you went and threw a sword at a member of the council? And didn't tell me about it?" The brunette asked looking at the other slayer impressed. "Damn B, how come all of the fun stuff happens to you?"

"Just lucky I guess." The girl said, turning to the older man. "Can I interest you in anything to eat? Or would you rather talk while we listen?"

"Thank you but I am not all that hungry, but if you truly think that you can manage to eat those things then I shall not try to stop you."

"Excellent," Nightwing said, as he grabbed a slice of pizza and waved them on.

"Cool, so what's your story when it comes to slayers?"

"My story, as you put it, will need to wait a moment as we explain slightly just what slayers are exactly. Do I have your permission?

"His town, means he needs to know. If we don't trust you after all this though, just think of it as a freebie."

"Of course my dear, though I must say you are extremely trusting of us."

"What can I say, he" she nodded to Batman, "reminds me of my old boyfriend." The drink that Nightwing had came out his nose. He walked to the side, as he got himself under control

"Yes very well, shall I tell him the old saying, or would you like to do the honors?"

"Go ahead and do it please. We always manage to butcher it, and I don't think that's what he wants right now."

"Of course, well I haven't done this in a while, so give me a moment sir. In every generation, there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer."

And what exactly is a Slayer? Night wing asked from his spot.

"The Slayer is a girl, usually but not always a teenager the age ranges have shown Slayers as young as 12, and as old as 19, who is granted various supernatural powers. These include superhuman levels of speed, strength and stamina, enhanced senses, rapid healing, prophetic dreams and the ability to get by on very little sleep." Alfred explained.

"What is their strength level at?"

"Well, a slayer is knownm to have the strength from two to ten tons of lifting power. Personally, I think that on mystical nights is when their strength is at its most, and that where the whole ten ton thing comes in. Cause I've seen slayers bend steel bars in half one day, then the next week can only barely bend it."

"A reasonable deduction." Batman said nodding in agreement. He wondered if they were interested in telling why there were two of them with the name Slayer though, if only one girl was supposed to have the power at a time.

"Can we have the story now?"

Of course my story as you call it, started many years ago, before I ever met my employer's family. It was right after the Second World War."

* * *

Alfred Pennyworth had just returned from his stint in the army. A stint, his father had greatly disapproved of, not because he could be killed, but because he was sure that his son was worried about the wrong war. His family was one of the old watcher families, a family that was supposed to be devoted to the war against the forces of darkness. Not a family, which worried over something as trivial, as some of the council members had said as a war world. After all, human dictators rose and fell in moments, but demons were around for hundreds of years. The Pennyworth's had been watchers for as long as the Giles Family, and had in fact allowed the Travers family take their place as the leaders, simply because they did not care who led anymore, after the fifth Pennyworth died as head of the council in the 18th century. Over the years many other families had tried to rule the council, the political backstabbing and corruption that had actually started in the 12th century began to appear more obvious now that the role of leadership was no longer being warmed by anyone. The Giles family had held the title for a while, as had the Starks, the Dumont's had held it proudly for two generations. The Bacio's from Italy had tried, but had quickly been shipped off to Mexico, after their own failed attempt, since they had stepped on many people's prides. The current family that was in charge, was the Travers family. If things continued at the rate that they had been, then the Travers would lose their power sometime in the next eighty years or so. Not that he really cared who was in charge one-way or the other; it was just something, which he knew to be a fact

"Alfred my boy." A man said, as he entered the house of his father. A house that had admittedly seen better days along with its owner, who was walking with a sever limp on one side. But being the proud man that he was, he refused to use the cane that he should have been using.

"Greetings father." The man said, "It is good to be back, after all of the things that I have had to deal with."

"I'm glad to hear that Alfred." The man said as he eased himself into a chair, in the small sitting room that he had. "I am curious what you have planned now though." The man looked at his son calmly. "As a well trained person, you should have some idea what you want now."

"Well I suppose that I shall either return to my work in the military, or I shall get a degree in medicine." The soldier admitted slightly embarrassed at the questions that were being thrown at him by his father.

"Really? Is there a reason that you are uninterested in joining the watcher ranks where you rightly belong? You were the head boy after all, and your recent work in the armed service should also be a large help. A slayer is always in need of someone to heal her injuries that she receives in her holy work. With such glowing items on your resume, I believe that they should let a person such as you into the fold quite easily. In fact, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they had a potential ready for you, the moment that you stepped through the doors, and take your oath as a Watcher."

The soldier nodded he did have skills that would be useful in this. "Perhaps, how long till I need to give an answer?"

"Tomorrow." A new voice said, as a young man stepped through the doorway, and looked at the soldier in disdain. "Do you think that you can decide whether or not that you can join us in the most important of wars, that we wage on the forces of darkness?" A sneer was in his voice, as Alfred looked at a former school rival.

"Alfred, you remember Quinton Travers. He was a couple of years ahead at school I believe."

Alfred turned to the young man that was facing him, and fought the urge to roll his eyes at his father, as he introduced the idiot of a politician that was trying to goad him into joining the war that he oversaw. "Greetings Mr. Travers, it is an honor to meet you again." He said, as he gave a small bow of acknowledgement to the other man. "I believe that you and I met, when we were arguing for our respective sides about the validity that a watcher trained in various forms of combat doesn't mean that it qualifies them to fight demons and vampires."

The head of the council in training glared at the other man, as the memory of the debate flashed through his mind. "Yes," he replied icily. "After you have proved yourself, I believe that a potential can be placed in your care." Nodding Alfred considered what it was that he should do. On one hand, he was raised knowing about all of this, and knew that he should help. On the other, he had mixed views on people that just took things into their own hands, and did what they thought that they had all of the answers.

Sighing dramatically he had agreed, after he had finished the battery of tests that consisted of a number of useful and pointless items, and relearning several dead languages that he had all but forgotten. The watcher that had overseen him had been harsh, but he had merely chuckled at this and had done his training. He was in top shape after serving in a medical unit, though they did prefer to modify a person's mental facilities, rather than worry about a person's physical abilities. As long as he could teach the basics and theory of combat, they didn't care what the slayer was taught. He had also been raised as the child of a watcher, and was already knowledgeable in many of these things.

When he was deemed ready, he took his oath of watchfulness. The council was originally going to place him with a potential who they had just found, when they received word about the slayer, who had been fighting a N'gari demon, when her watcher had been assaulted by a vampire. After several weeks of looking into the information, the Council had decided that the girl was not to blame for the unfortunate event. Though there was some grumbling about what had happened, and that the Slayer should have left her fight with the demon, and placed herself between the Vampyre and the watcher. Wasn't that what the Slayer was there for? Several Watchers had asked, to be the one to place themselves in danger, while the rest of humanity was allowed a relative bit of peace. The girl would not be allowed another mistake though. The council thought because of his military background, Alfred would be able to make an acceptable understanding in the girl.

Alfred sighed, as he looked at the small apartment that he was going to be staying at. After the death of his predecessor, he couldn't stay at the same place with his slayer of four months, since people around there would talk, and that would just be more distractions and attention that they would not need.

Alfred stood his ground, while Annabelle dodged a punch, but took a knee to the side. Straightening up, she performed a Japanese styled high kick, followed with an Israeli elbow jab. Spinning from a counter punch, she pulled her stake out, and brought the weapon down into the vampire dusting the creature. He looked at his pocket watch again; as he judged the amount of time it had taken her.

"You were showing off again." He commented dryly.

"What makes you say that sir?" Annabelle asked, as she smoothed her dress out before anyone would see her.

They would have to stop somewhere to let her freshen up now though, Alfred thought. He frowned, as he saw the rip in her skirt. "It's very simple really," he said, "your Israeli elbow strike, should have gone all the way through his chest, or at the very least broken several of his ribs. Had he been capable of breathing, I'm sure that he would have been temporarily incapacitated. Instead, you drew back and let him hit you."

"Yes sir. She replied, turning slightly pink, as he pointed out her simple mistake.

"You seem to think that this is a game Annabelle." Alfred continued, as if she had said nothing. "You seem to think, you have time for the flashy moves that you hear about soldiers using when things got to personal." He looked at her disapprovingly, since this was an old argument between the two of them. He knelt down, and felt her ribs for any damage; he then checked her face since she had taken a few punches there as well. "Those are stories, and stories only. You shall keep your fighting as simple possible, so that we can get home as soon as possible. This is what you were raised to do, so I expect you to behave like it. You may have a slight advantage of strength against the vampires, but they have the advantage of numbers. They often have years of experience on you as well. Tell me, what else do you have? You are unfortunately, very alone in this fight. As there is no one else that can stand up to them, and hope to win. So this is a war of the mind, as much as it is of the body. Perhaps you should read your handbook on those subjects tonight. Chapters ten through twelve will be a good place for you to start.

"Yes sir," she replied, as she was now staring at her feet, ignoring the hard look that the man was giving. Her former watcher had been kind of scary, and had known his way around the underworld, but this man, was so deceptively calm all the time, despite the fact that he could obviously had taken Monsieur Dumast.

Alfred sighed, as he led the girl home, once there, he had sent the girl to go and make herself look appropriate. Alfred looked sadly at her retreating form, despite her calling, there were times that he wished that he could let the girl be normal. The girl would soon be eighteen; it was a shame really what he would soon have to do. He would do all he could do to help the girl to survive the coming test, since next week was the time to start administering the drugs. Shaking his head, he placed a teapot on the stove, and waited for the kettle to whistle. He went through his mail while he waited, a package from the council holding the drugs he had just been thinking about had come, along with a letter from his father and another letter from the council. It was time.

Alfred watched through the next month, as his Slayer became gradually weaker and weaker, as she had more and more of the powerful drug put into her system. They had decided to spend the night studying Annabelle had yet to say anything to him about her lack of strength the past few days, she knew that he new and that was enough for her.

He was currently in his room holding, his helmet in his hands. His eyes kept retuning to stare at the red-cross symbol. As he stared he thought about what it was that he was doing, to the girl that was in his charge. And he also thought about all of the oaths that he had taken in his life. There was his most recent one to be a watcher, there was his oath of loyalty to his country, there was his oath as a medic and there was his oath as a soldier. In all of these oaths he had sworn that he would protect all life as best as he could. Now though he was doing the opposite of that despite what all of his oaths said. He was slowly but surely dosing the girl with something that because of what she did could kill her the test was tomorrow though, he just had to wait and watch to see what would happen.

This was the night of the test, despite his orders he had told his charge about the vampire that she would have to face. It was actually none other that a former Nazi scum bag. He supposed that the other watchers found it slightly amusing to push his buttons, he looked at the crossbow that Annabelle had decided to leave behind, saying that she didn't trust her arm to be steady enough to do the job that was required of it this night.

Alfred paced the training room, having long given up on trying to read any of the books around the room, and he was neither hungry nor thirsty. Quinton had been by briefly, to see how he was doing, given false assurances that didn't fool either of them. Alfred supposed, that he actually enjoyed the worry that he was having over the entire matter.

"To hell with it." He said as he saw his helmet one time to many. He grabbed the item, and flung it across the room in anger at himself. He grabbed the broadsword that he trained with Annabelle, and stormed out the door, if he hurried he might be able to help her.

He blew through the door, he saw Annabelle standing there trading blows with the Nazi vampire still in its uniform. He thought it wrong for the council to do this, for his own experiences were not the only reason for Annabelle to dislike that uniform. Her other was that the only two friends that she had ever had, had both died in the bombings over London. The two girls that had died, had been potentials as well, and had been allowed one letter to be written a month. He heard that she had been devastated by the information of their deaths that had been casually dropped to her, as if it was some insignificant detail that had been nearly forgotten. But she had continued her work in her training,then near the end of the war she hadbeen called. Nowwhenever shemet avampire with any kind of German accent, she had been as brutal as possible with them. Now she was at the mercy of one such vampire.

He threw himself at the vampire, and nearly made it to him, when he felt the backhand that sent him flying across the room. The slight distraction though, had been enough to give the weakened slayer the time that she needed to lash out and punch the vampire in the face several times. Though the blows were weaker than they normally would have been, they were so unexpected that the vampire let her go in response more than anything else that the girl had done.

"Not bad little girl. Once I have taken care of the him, I shall enjoy testing the limits of your physical abilities in ways thatfew can appreciate."

The Slayer paled slightly, as she saw the leer the German was giving her. "I don't think so." Alfred said, as he lunged at the monster. Laughing insanely, the Vampire sidestepped the attack and brought his foot out to connect with the side of the man, sending him flying into another wall.

The vampire smirked as he picked up a large knife. "Now we can do this the fun way, or well there really isn't another way." The vampire said, And I do enjoy hearing girls scream." Snarling almost savagely, Annabelle brought a stake out and placed it in her off hand, as she tried punching the vampire. Laughing the vampire caught her hand, and trapped her other hand against her side.

"Yes, I see that you have fire in you and intelligence even. Perhaps you even know what it is that has truly happened to me. Maybe I'll ask you, maybe I won't." He said, as he threw her from him the sleeves of her top now in shreds, from the iron hard grip that hadn't quiet relinquished their hold on her.

"I don't think so you piece of filth." Alfred's pained voice said, as he stabbed the vampire in the side. This enraged the vampire even more, as he turned his attention to the Watcher.

"All right, I'm done playing you pansy Brit. I'm going to take the girl, and what's more, I'm going to make you watch. Then I'll head for the homelands, and present myself to the third Reich, and we shall figure a way to duplicate the process."

"That cannot be allowed." Alfred said, stuggling to keep his vision focused. Annabelle made one more attempt, this time trying some sort of high kick in hoping to hit him in the back, when she should have been going for an incapacitation shot. The backhand was acomponied by the hilt of the knife to her face this time.

"You just sit there now," the demon said. And Alfred was swallowing the contents of his stomache when the demon leaned down and ripped the rest of her clothes off, acompined with several punches to her middle which sh was barely awake enough to block. Before he could do more though, a crossbow bolt stuck the demon. "What" Was all he could say, before he fell to ashes the blade that had been in his hand fell somewere near her.

"And that was all Alfred remembered, except for the fact that the watchers were all coming in, he decided that now was a good time to let the pain get to him, and let the darkness over come him.

* * *

"When I finally woke up, they told me that because of my interference the test had been a complete failure. Despite the fact that the girl couldn't be saved, due to the internal injuries she had, and the blade from his knife nicked her artery. I nearly lost my position but it was decided to see how I would react after the death, and see if I would need to be silenced, or just let go. So I was temporarily given the dubious duty of instructing the criminal minded heir of the Giles clan. It was my painful duty to tutor a angry young man from the way of the streets, to the refined ways of the watcher. The person I taught, is currently the head of the council. After they were sure I would not say anything they let me go. I quickly found though I had lost much of my credibility, and was now forced to find new sources of income than what I had originally planned."

"Whoa. You taught the G-Man?" Knight said as the last bit of information seemed to slip by him.

"Yes, often when I taught him, my cousin Merrick would sit in as well."

"Your cousin was Merrick." Slayer said, suddenly her amusement turning serious.

"Yes, I was very sad to hear that he had died a supposed victim in a gang fight."

"It was a vampire master named Lothosactually."

"Really?"

"Yes he was the first Master Vampire that I killed."

"You make it sound like, you have killed more than one master vampire."

"Lets see, there's Lothos,The Master, Angelus andwe tagged team on Kakistos, those were the main ones that we dealt with. Did we ever figure out what that really big vampire counted as? You know, the um Luke one from my first year?"

"Nope, we never did figure it out, though G-man figured he must have been pretty old."

"Three, possibly four master vampires have died by your hands? I'm impressed. And with reputations such as theirs, they must have hard kills."

"What was so special about these guys?" Huntress asked curiously, the story had left her with memories of things her cousin in Venice, had mentioned long ago.

"The master was supposed to be over a thousand years old, same with the guy we tag teamed on probably as much as two considering the physical changes.. Angelus was only two hundred, but he also had this great emotional game of his that he liked to do, which basically drove you crazy, or scared shitless."

"Well Slayer, can we work together on this? Or are you going to make this hard on all of us?"

"We work together." The girl said, "anyone who fights for their slayer, is good in our book. And besides, you might have dirt on the head honcho."

"Very well." Batman said, nodding.

"Good. Now let me at her." Catwoman said, as she landed next to them from where she had been hiding.

Slayer swallowed nervously, as the villain turned hero glared at her. "Selene?"

Ooh Cliffhanger

Review folks

So did Batman show his authority well enough?


	17. Chapter 17

The usual I don't own either of these universes that everybody writes in this spot.

I seriously considered jumping back over to Dawn or Angel just to be a mean S.O.B But wanted to go ahead and get this part done with thought it would be longer.

kirallie, XinnLajgin ,Salestia, war90, gual1, Damia-Queen of the Gypsi's,glad you all like so far. spk soon little grasshoppper. legolasfan91 you just want me to hurry up and finish in reality. Sierra-Falls What can I say, I was still pretty new to this when I started and if you want to see bad check out my first fic which is kind of abondanded right now. Rouge Mage Glad you liked my Bat. General Mac Oh come on its just to keep people interested besides the world needs more crazy people. Doza, prattle away my friend, its nice to read the long reviews. Glad you like Alf's story, and hey speculate away.

_"Selene?" _

Slayer swallowed nervously, as she looked at the woman in front of her.

"The one and only." Catwoman looked like she was on the verge of using the claws in her gloves, to rearrange her face. "Now I really wish I knew how you guys use those rope gun things." Slayer said, as she swallowed nervously. 

"I'm so glad you remembered me Anne." The girl winced even more, as the name was tossed out.

"Catwoman, explain." Batman ordered.

"Of course Batman, this girl, is the same girl, that I gave basic training to one summer while I was in L.A a few years ago. I had high hopes for her to, she was going to be my answer for him." She said, tossing her thumb over at Nightwing.

"The answer to me?" Nightwing said surprised.

"A protégé then, capable of both combat and theft."

Shadow Slayer snorted at this. "Yeah right, she's the goody good of the group, that sounds more in my style."

"I hate it when you have a point." Knight said. "But somehow, I don't think you're to far off on this."

Wicca didn't answer, but was waiting for a response from their leader, who seemed to be more interested in her feet, than what the others were discussing. "You want to tell us something?"

" Well, you guys never did ask how I knew how to break into the mayors office." She defended herself.

'She seemed embarrassed by this.' Batman thought, 'or perhaps she was ashamed of what it was that she had done at one time.'

"You mean Dead Boy didn't teach you how to do any of that stuff? I always thought it was him that was doing that kind of stuff."

"Nope."

"So, what were you going to call her? The Kitten?" Nightwing joked cautiously, as he looked at the young woman in front of him curiously. It was one thing to face off against a random person in a costume, it was another to be face to face with someone that Catwoman had thought good enough to train in some of the tricks of her trade. The woman was notorious as Batman, for playing things close to her chest.

"Don't worry about it Nightwing, though you make it seem like Robin is a name that makes people cringe in fear. Although I imagine that it might be interesting if we were to see the two of you to go at it." Catwoman said, almost hopefully.

The two young adults snorted at this. "Thanks, but no thanks." Slayer said, finally seeming to have gotten her composure back. "Besides, I didn't come here to settle an old grudge match with you and your wannabe boyfriend's kid, or whatever it is that is going on between the two of you." Nightwing and Huntress both hid grins at this, while Batman stiffened slightly, and Catwoman just grinned in triumph. "And I definitely don't want to play the niece or whatever it is, beating up the son. I'm here to find Dawn Summers, then if all goes well, I fade back into the background, and nobody sees or hears from me or my team, in say, another five or six years."

"How did you meet?" Batman asked, not allowing her to get away from the current conversation, even if it was only of secondary importance. The first rule of engagement, know your enemy.

"Maybe we can tell you later." Slayer said, she saw the stubborn bat glare that was being sent in her direction, and realized that a small part of past that she wasn't overly proud of was about to be opened up for everyone to see. "Fine." She agreed reluctantly, "If your going to be stubborn about this, I guess it's my time to do a bit of story time. I didn't know you were interested in gossip though," She joked, "but Catwoman has to help tell it."

"Good, that means we don't have to try and drag it out of her later." Knight said cheerfully. "Ever think about going into work as a therapist Batman? I'm sure you could get the most hardcore, silent and repressive person to open up to you. Get all sorts of childhood trauma off their chests."

"All right, that seems good enough." Catwoman said, agreeing with Slayer, though she was still glaring at her in annoyance. Though she was slightly worried that the young man was about to get a fist or weapon thrown at him if he wasn't careful.

_Flashback/Another story time_

* * *

The blonde Slayer eased herself off the drainpipe, and onto the window ledge. Inwardly hating herself for what she was about to do, again. But, she did what she had to do to survive though. Since her waitress job was hardly making enough money for her to stay in the trashy apartment that she had to live in, much less things like clothes, or even food, she would just have to keep doing it. At least till the legal job started making enough money, that she could stop this. Still though it was pretty easy to rob places in L.A, especially with the things that Giles had taught her. Like the basics of lock picking, something that she was sure that had not been in the manual of things, which slayers needed to know. Course, she and her bust guy friend, had blackmailed him into teaching them that particular trick. 

She smiled sadly at the memory, as she finally worked the window open, fortunately she didn't even have to use super strength either. She dug into her jacket, and brought out the big bottle of cheap perfume, that the cleaning lady of this place used. She nodded to herself, as she saw the twin laser beams were between the frame. 'Just enough room.' She thought to herself. She tucked her ponytail inside the back of her jacket, then grabbed the top of the window sill, and curled her legs up under herself for a moment, then launched herself between the two beams, and landed almost soundlessly on a chest at the foot of the bed. She looked around the room, to see if she was in any trouble yet, and saw the decorations that were in the room all seemed to have one theme in particular. "Great, I had to decide to steal from the crazy cat lady. She grumbled to herself.

Cautious for anymore laser beams, she jumped from the chest to a chair, then to a small stool that was in front of a dresser, which held two small jewelry boxes. She opened the farther box, thinking it would have the less used stuff. Her eyes widened slightly, as she saw some of the fancy stuff in this thing. There were gems of various shapes and sizes, all appearing to have been painstakingly polished till they almost glowed in the dark room. They were almost like the kind of things you'd expect to find in a museum or her mom's shop, on rare occasions. Shrugging, she pushed the box back to where it was, and tried the other one, now this was what she was looking for, as she saw the assorted jewelry that she had originally come for. She dug deeper into the second box, till she found a pair of semi expensive earrings, that didn't look like they had been used in a long time. She had also found some Egyptian looking earrings, with some kind of writing on them. She had been about to take them, but they were well polished, and would probably be missed, while the jewelry stuck at the bottom probably wouldn't be. She quickly rearranged the things inside to match what it had looked like, before she had opened the boxes.

She pocketed the earrings, and then began jumping the furniture again. 'Easier than jumping tombstones.' She thought sadly, as she reached the chest, and looked at the window that showed her exit. She retucked her hair, and sprang forward, straightening her body out as much as she could, to avoid the twin laser beams. She was almost there, when she heard a small hissing sound, and something caught her by the leg and jerked her to the ground. She fell hard enough to make her wince, but started rolling backwards anyways, hoping to catch whoever it was by surprise. She came back up in a crouch, ready to fight if need be.

"Nice response kid." A mocking voice said from behind her. "To bad for you I know how to jump over a moving object." The blonde gritted her teeth in annoyance at herself. She really didn't want, or have the will to have a fight right now, but she might be able to pull it off, if need be. She cautiously looked over her shoulder, and saw the person behind her. It was a woman in a dark purple bodysuit, with some kind of mask. She was standing in front of the window, that a few moments ago had been an easy exit.

Great, of all the penthouse level buildings she had to rob, she had to choose the one with a world gymnast class athlete in it. Why couldn't life ever give her even the smallest bit of a break?

Taking a chance, Slayer looked down at her leg, and saw the end of the whip that was wrapped around her ankle; the other end of the weapon appeared to be in the hands of mask lady. And the way the woman held the weapon, left little doubt that she was skilled with it. She was so screwed that it wasn't even funny an unknown person with a weapon had her in a bad spot. "Don't suppose you'd believe I was just inspecting the room security, and that this is just my proof that I got in and out?" She asked, as she withdrew the jewelry and tossed it on to the bed. "The company would have reimbursed you for the stuff." The lie sounded false even to her and the way she said it didn't make it sound like she was trying to convince anyone.

The woman raised an eyebrow at this. "Right kid, why don't you try another one that might be more believable?"

"How long are you going to give me to come up with a decent excuse then?" The blonde asked, as she straightened up and was now standing.

"Sit." The woman ordered.

"Thanks but no thanks, I really don't want to go through obedience school right now." The woman shrugged, and sent the girl sprawling to her feet with just a flick of her weapon.

"You know kid, the whole emotionless quips don't work that well." The woman said, shaking her head. "If you're going to say them, act like you mean them." The girl just shrugged this time, but the woman noticed that any kind of joke that might have come out was going to stay dead this time. 'When she did speak,her voice had no trace of happiness or defiance that was usual in most thieves.' The woman thought, as she studied the figure on the floor in front of her. 'That wasn't to say that she sounded lifeless, merely un-alive. There was no real energy, to her voice, yet it also lacked the dreariness of a monotone or the sullen tones of the perpetually depressed. Her voice was of one who'd had it all and left it behind or had it taken from her. "Now then, you want to tell me what it is that you're doing here in this area kid? With some of the skills I saw you display, you might be able to work with some of the more impressive people in this town. Instead you're knocking over midlevel wannabe's off, for whatever it is that you think they might have that is valuable. And then, taking stuff that isn't even all that valuable." She said, nodding toward the jewelry that was now lying on the bed. "I do this cause I have to, not because I enjoy it." The girl said, "it's wrong, and I know it. But I was out of choices, since it was either this, or start sleeping around, and there was no way in hell that I was going to do that." The girl calmly let some razor blades she had secreted into the cuff of her jacket fall into her hand. The blades made a good kind of distraction, and if she aimed them just right, she might be able to weaken the whip enough for her to get away. At the moment, that wasn't going to happen though. She would just have to wait. "That's good to hear kid." The woman said nodding in what seemed to be approval. "That kind of life, isn't the kind for anyone to live." She gave a small involuntary shudder, as if she was reliving a part of her life, that she would rather keep buried in the past where it belonged. Slayer could understand that kind of feeling, she felt like that everyday she looked in the mirror. "So, are you going to be calling he cops on me or not?"

"No, I don't think so, but I'm going to have to do something to show you not to mess with people you don't know enough about."

"Story of my life." The girl said, shrugging her shoulders, as she seemed to be lost in her own memory about something or other.

The woman bit her lip concerned, a broken person like this girl appeared to be, was as much a danger to herself, as she was to society and could cause all sorts of problems. Besides, she had come to this town to lie low, not make some kid feel better. But then again, maybe it would be better if she took care of the kid. Up to a point that is, just enough to keep her alive, other than that, she was not getting into it. She wasn't a hero that brought in some kid off the streets, and turned them into a miniaturized version of herself. No, that just wasn't her way; she did better on her own than with a lot of people getting in her way. Though this kid might come closer to filling in the slot of partner, than most people did, especially with the basic skills already had inside of her. She would make a good trainee, besides there was the occasional job, which would benefit from having an extra set of hands.

"Tell you what kid. If you keep going the way that you are, someone will catch you, despite the raw skill you have. Maybe by the police, or a mask, but you will be caught, if you don't pay enough attention." The woman smiled encouragingly, as she waited for that to penetrate the girl's head, though her response wasn't quite what she was expecting.

"So."

"Well, if you're willing to learn, then I can show you the tricks of the trade." The woman offered, hoping the girl didn't see how eager she was for her to accept, with her gymnastic abilities, and her possible fighting abilities, if that roll had been anything to go by she was a perfect candidate for her to use.

"Why would I want to? I told you this is only till I get myself on my feet." The girl argued.

"You may believe that now kid, but you've got the raw skills, why not learn all you can?"

The girl looked up at this, as if trying to question what she was being offered. The woman decided to play the card that she held in reserve, that she already knew would at least get a vocal, if not an emotional response. "Anyway, it's better than falling onto the floor for a twenty isn't it? Besides its not like you have some great destiny to follow is it?" The woman asked. The girl flinched at this, but shook her head against that. "Good then I'll show you." The girl nodded finally though it looked like she was still unsure, she would have to make the girl enjoy the thrill of the theft or she might lose her later on. "Now, what do I call you?"

"I'm Anne." The guarded look in her eyes made her believe, while not quite the truth, was closer than what she might have given, had she not been willing to give."

"Very well, you may call me Selene, or if you want to really be polite you may call me Catwoman." The slight dropped jaw, let her know, that she was now suitably impressed. "Meet me here tomorrow morning." The girl nodded before she felt the whip unwrap from her leg. "Oh, and if I can handle a bunch of batarangs, I can definitely handle those razor blades." Catwoman said, as she jumped out of the window, disappearing into the night of LA.

'What, had she just gotten herself into?' The blonde thought, as she waited a few minutes then slid down the drainpipe and disappeared on the crowded streets.

* * *

"And that's how we met." Slayer said shrugging ,after the short story was over. "By catching me red handed, and landing me on my ass, then offering me a helping hand when I was in an emotionally bad spot. She trained me to steal, even better than I already could. When she was done, I could pick pockets and do more lock picking, than even our favorite watcher. I think she had some idea that we would be the opposite of you and him." She said nodding again at Nightwing. "Something that she kind of confirmed tonight, or I was going to be something that she could distract you with, while she made her getaway or something like that. I left before she was done teaching me though, and took off with the harness that she gave me, although I had helped her with enough small jobs to more than pay for it. So there really isn't any need to go and get all mad at me about leaving." 

"How about the fact, you just disappeared one night?" Catwoman growled, flexing her hand to display the retractable claws on her costume. "I was nearly caught on a simple job, because I was waiting on you."

"Well I told you I had to work that night. Besides, you play detective trying to find someone that you met the night before for some overly emotional person, get thrown into a alternate hell dimension, fight your way out of said hell dimension, go through an emotional roller coaster that somehow brought at least a part of me back to the land of the living. And then, still be in the mood to steal something from some museum or other, when all you really feel like doing is going home."

"Touché." Catwoman said.

"And you never told us about being able to do this because?" Wicca asked curious.

"Well you guys never did ask how I managed to pay Spike off all of those times, and didn't act like you really wanted to. As for almost no door being a problem for me, it's because it's a whole lot more fun to kick a door in, than it is to sneak past."

"So in other words, you prefer to go Rambo style, than Sherlock Holmes." Nightwing said, as he looked her up and down again now, that he realized that at one time they could have been enemies instead of people that were now in an odd way, working toward the same cause.

"Basically. Now can we get back to why were really here? I want to head to a warehouse." She opened a map, Knight handed her, and showed a building highlighted in green. "According to the demon that we threatened to dismember if he didn't talk, this is where all the hired muscle are asked to go for the all mighty interview."

"That would normally be dangerous, but right now its probably okay." Nightwing said, as he examined the area they were meeting at.

"Doesn't matter, we need to find out what it is that there is there, so that we can figure out what kind of security to deal with. It could be an all mystical based one, or it could be scientific, or a combination of the two."

"What else did you learn from your informant?" Batman asked.

"Said that they were only hiring half-breeds oddly enough."

"Half-breeds?"

"Yeah, Why? That mean something to you guys?" Shadow asked, as she saw the rest of the bat-clan tense up at the obvious connection.

"Only one person I can think of at the moment, that would make a point to make sure that whoever he got that they were all half-breeds." Nightwing muttered, clenching his fist.

"And who would this be?" Wicca asked, "Perhaps we could figure out if there's anything more to what there are doing."

"An old friend." Batman, said.

Catwoman and Buffy will have a better showdown later.


	18. Ch 18

Don't own any of this so don't sue if you don't know who owns the respective characters then you need to stop playing Ostrich and get your head out of the sand or maybe even read some of my other disclaimers.**Computer**

"Talk"

'Thought'

On with the Tale!

* * *

"And this old friend would be who exactly?" Faith asked darkly. Things were happening way to fast to make her comfortable with the whole situation. First little sis disappears due to some kind of half-breed crazies, who may actually be oblivious that they had the sister of the head slayer in their claws. Then, they had all put on Halloween costumes to find her before something bad actually happens. Then other people in costumes start popping out of all of the woodwork, all of who went by names that could just have easily been the work names of people in a strip joint. Seriously, what kind of person called themselves Huntress or Nightwing? And to top it all off, now B seems to actually know who one of these people was. And that wouldn't be that bad, if it wasn't for the fact that the person was a thief, and was supposed to be one of the, if not the best in the business. But the weirdness didn't stop there, no of course not, that would be just to damn simple for them, and its not like the powers that fricking be, would want them to have one of those. If anything, it got even weirder for the demon hunters. Said super thief, had supposedly taught B some of the basics in breaking and entering, to the point that B had used good old Sunneyhell as a place that allowed her to practice her unknown skills when people weren't paying attention to her. In a way, she realized, they had all been subjects of one of the best cons ever. And they probably would never have figured it out, if her old teach didn't want to settle a score for something or other.

"So um, how did you recognize her anyway?" Faith asked, as she realized that her question was being ignored for the moment.

"Simple her body language." Catwoman said, her eyes having returned to boring into the blonde haired Slayer. "Only this girl can look both slightly intimidating, and like a girl in dressing up at the same time." Catwoman nodded, as she looked at the young woman that almost everyone was staring at now, all of them seemed to have questions that they wanted ask. The thief and her former apprentice were stuck in old memories though from those words.

* * *

**#Flashback#**

Selena walked into the room she had designated as a training area, if the young would be thief came back to see her. Around the room were various locks and safes that she would train the girl in. If she didn't show though, at least Selena would have the day to practice her own skills, though she would rather practice on the real deal than waste her valuable time on things as simple as these, still that was what the blind fold was for.

She was about to give up on the girl, when she saw her carefully enter the room through the window yet again. She was moving warily, like any animal entering the territory of an animal that was an unknown entity to it. She paused in front of the mirror, and without even seem to realize what she was doing she pulled herself up slightly. While there only a few noticeable changes in her posture, the one that Selena noticed the most though, was that she was now ready to fight, but at the same time the vulnerability hung around her so much. It was an odd combination, that made the thief wonder what she would do if she was challenged. She was currently stuck for the moment in flight mode, but a push in one direction, and she might fight. A push in the other, and she would run without looking back.

"Good, you're here." Selena said, flashing her most comforting smile, as she could without seeming like she was giving the girl pity. _She was not going to play mommy to this girl._ She thought to herself. _She was not like the bat, needing a kid to be there to be her moral compass, or whatever the boy wonder was to him. Besides, she was perfectly capable on her own._ She mused smugly.

"I only have so much money." The girl said, as if that explained everything, and to Selena it did.

"Good." Catwoman said, as she looked at the girl's eyes, they still the sorrow that could drown a person. Eyes like that should be sparkling with mischief and other emotions; instead they were dead cold, almost like the Bats. The only difference was that he had a type of fire in his eyes, as well that pushed him in his idiotic mission. The girl was emotionally numb, this would either make her reckless with her own life, or she would try to draw herself inward, and shut out the rest of the world. Only time would tell what she would choose, till then, she could use the girl's skills for her own personal use.

**#End Flashback#

* * *

**

A sarcastic smile tugged at the edge of Catwoman's lips. "Besides, only a handful of people would wear that kind of leather, and actually look comfortable in it." Slayer flushed slightly at this, and mumbled something that none of the others could over hear.

Faith began hopefully looking around for the portal, or whatever, that she had come through, that meant that she had fallen through a dimensional portal of some kind or other. Cause there was no way that she could be in the right one, not with the way things were going. B was the one that was all sweet and stuff, did everything by the book. Sure she bent or trashed a rule here and there, but she Faith was the bad girl of the Chosen Two. When someone wanted to see what the good slayer was like they looked at B, when one wanted to look at the bad way to do things they looked at her past. The only bad things on B's record, was the whole sleeping with Angel thing, other than that she had a squeaky clean record, or so they had all thought. Now though, it began looking like B had things that she never had told anyone. She looked at the slightly more experienced slayer, and wondered what else the unofficial boss of the group had hidden up her sleeves. G-Man was going to have a heart attack, when he heard about all this stuff.

"Back on topic." Slayer said, doing her best not to look at Catwoman. "Who the hell has Dawn? And how much pain am I allowed to put into them?"

"If the part about half-breeds is correct, then it is most likely Two-Face, a former ally of mine before he became Two-Face." Batman said stonily, which was basically him saying, don't ask, with big hyphens on either end. "Though the fact that these are beings that can hide what they truly are could mean that Clay-Face has something to do with it to. It will take time to be sure. I will need to analyze the data, if you find a trail of mud though we're are most likely talking about Clay-Face."

"Who comes up with those names anyways?" Knight asked, "I mean seriously, they sound as awe inspiring as the names of some of the lower level comic book characters."

Nightwing snorted at this. "You have a point, and as soon as we figure that out we'll tell you, till then were stuck with what we got, besides do you have people that you fight that have better sounding names?"

"Well, there was the Master and Spike, they were the only ones who really had names that weren't their own. All the others were scary or freaky enough; they didn't need to use some sort of dopey name like that. Course, when you been around a few hundred years apiece, the whole secret identity thing must seem pretty stupid after awhile especially when technically you're already dead and all. Besides, how can the bad guys expect you to take them serious, when they got some crazy name that they got to go by?"

"Well, without knowledge of who you are, people have trouble knowing what to expect, all they see is what you want them to see." Nightwing explained hiding his amusement, as he realized that they both had points. "Although, when people look like they would be more comfortable at a circus, it can sometimes be hard to take them serious the first few times you fight."

"We can discuss these things later." Batman ordered, glaring at the two young men in slight annoyance. Nightwing usually did start joking when he was either scared, or nervous, but he had expected better behavior from the Knight. From what he had been able to learn of the way he had handled himself with the bar owner, he hadn't seemed like one to joke like this, but perhaps they had all been to angry to think straight. He could practically sense the anger and fear that was coming off the group in waves. The girl must mean a lot to them, and so she was the key to figuring out who they all were, and what their long term plans in his city were. He didn't need a bunch of loose canons all over the place; Huntress was more than enough of a headache. He pressed his lips together, as he tried to think of how to handle the multiple people. "Let me make it quite blunt, I don't trust you enough, even to show you much."

"Well there's a shocker." Shadow said sarcastically, "and you think we've shown you everything that we can do? Please, just because the boss is blonde, that don't mean that were idiots." Shadow said, as she drew a knife, and began cleaning the bottom of her boots. "I mean, just cause we got us a truce, doesn't mean we expect you to tell us where your secret clubhouse is, or that we get one of your fancy belts either."

"That's good." Huntress said from her own spot, "since even I don' know where the main one is."

The demon hunters just shrugged unconcerned at this. "So you're the black sheep, huh?" Shadow asked, looking the purple clad hero up and down questioningly. "The one that is always kept slightly out of the loop, unless they need your help. The one that always has to prove themselves, against some stupid little level that they set for you." Huntress didn't answer, though her glare seemed to be enough for the demon hunters. Shadow looked at the Bat and his mini version. The younger guy looked like he had winced at this, while brood boy hadn't even reacted.

"You realize that is probably one of the stupidest things to do?" Knight said. "I mean we were teenagers when we did it to one of ours, so we were young and stupid which kind of go hand in hand you know? But you guys look like you might be able to realize the consequences of doing stupid stuff like that!"

"Don't bother," Huntress said, "I've gotten used to it."

"We made a mistake once, and we'd just hate to see it repeated." Wicca said. "Besides, you're one of the only ones here that has the right kind of gear on you to fight vampires. Unless you guys were expecting us to just have all of the equipment needed for you to fight any pesky vampires for you?" The red and white haired girl asked.

"No, but we can't exactly carry that kind of equipment to a place when we don't know what's needed." Batman countered, understanding that most of them were just trying to help, but what they didn't understand was that no one told him how to run his city, not even Superman was allowed to do that. Only Slayer seemed to understand that, since she had wisely kept her mouth shut, though she was casting curious glances at the woman.

"Fine, but tell me did you know about vamps before tonight?" Wicca asked.

"Yes, I did. I have had my occasional run in with the mystical beings." Batman said.

"And you don't keep anything on you to deal with the stray vamp that you might run into?" Knight asked in surprise. "They must be real good at avoiding you, if they haven't had a real run in with you yet."

"Vampires are not the city's primary concern." Batman informed the sarcastic young man, though he admitted to himself that the young man might have a few points, if he and his friends were really targets of the mystical world like he was beginning to suspect. It might explain, why he was surprised that none of his people was carrying any demon fighting gear.

"Yeah? Well as is, she's the only one capable of taking on anything that we deal with." Slayer said meeting Batman's glare head on coming between Batman and Knight, not even flinching when the others took some uncertain steps back. It was obvious, that she wasn't going to let him damage her people if she could say anything about it. "She's the only one with a cross and crossbow, and I think we could spare her a couple of stakes."

Nightwing smirked at the group. "You realize that those arrows of hers, aren't made out of wood right?"

"Really?" Shadow said. "So all she has is something to scare the other vamps off with, and I bet we could find or make some arrows for her crossbow. What do you think red?"

"Enough." Huntress said, before the witch could answer, she glared at the two who looked like they were ready to go at each other. "I don't need anyone protecting me, if I have trouble with the others I will deal with it."

The others looked uncomfortable, as they realized what they had been doing. "Sorry we saw an excuse for a fight and we took it Wicca said, the slightest bit of red showing on her cheeks. "It is your fight, I just don't like judgmental people telling me I'm right or wrong we kind of learned our lesson from doing that and all and I guess we stopped thinking you know?"

"Yeah, but we're tight now." Shadow told the witch who just nodded in embarrassment.

"Looks like your kitten has claws." Nightwing said to Catwoman, in a slight whisper in what he thought was near impossible to hear, as he saw Slayer back away from where she had been standing in-between the Batman and her friend.

"Call me her kitten again, and we will fight. Slayer said. "Truce or not, I'm fast losing patience with everything all right?"

"Huntress lead them to the cave that I showed you." Batman said, as he eyed Slayer in curiosity. The young woman was near exhaustion, and needed some uninterrupted sleep for a while before she snapped. If she was looked up to as much as the other members of her team seemed to be, he was impressed that this was the first sign of lost temper. He figured, she hadn't allowed herself a moment to rest, and while he did have Robin to find, he had his own ways of unwinding while his computers scanned information. The closest the girl had come to relaxing, he would guess had been when she had been fighting those demons last night or when she had lain on her bed telling her friends that she had slept. He sincerely doubted that she had actually slept last night. Then there was the fact that Selena being here seemed to be putting more stress on her as well. He figured if she were given a task, she would do it, but that she needed something to clear her mind.

"The cave will have better methods of tracking all of the various people that have been kidnapped, and we can see if there is a way to coordinate all of our information together."

"And how are we supposed to do that when we don't even know how to get there?" Knight asked, a lot more calmly, and more subdued avoiding eye contact with Batman now. Evidently the entire group had been holding that yell in, and now the three of them appeared much calmer.

That was another thing to remember, that in their own way they were much like Clark by thinking with their emotions for the most part, rather than their minds. Mentalities like that usually led to rash decisions, though Slayer and the witch for the most part appeared to be keeping their tempers better than their teammates, since their reactions had been much less heated than the other two. He would have to wait and see what the witch's reaction to loosing her temper was, if she became unreasonable, then he would need some way to neutralize her quickly, before she became a threat to anyone in his city.

"If you will consent to taking some salts, that will knock you out temporarily," Alfred suggested, "we will then arrange to have you brought to one of the auxiliary caves."

"Sorry Alf, but that is so not happening." Slayer said, "I don't let people drug me, unless theirs at least one of my friends around to make sure I'm going to be okay. Besides, someone needs to go and tell our favorite watcher what it is that is going on. So Shadow and Knight can go and."

"Uh, uh sweet thing," Catwoman cut the girl off. "You are coming, I want to keep my eye on you for a bit more, before I feel real comfortable about you hanging around, without someone making sure you don't try anything stupid."

"Fine." Slayer said bristling, "but I still refuse the being knocked out by the drug thing, that watcher senior suggested." She said nodded her head in Alfred's direction, and by the hardness of her eyes, it was obvious that she would fight as many drugs as she could.

Batman pursed his lips; the girl apparently had a bad experience with someone drugging her at one time, which was the only way that she could be so adamant about this. It was possible she had a story similar to Alfred's, yet another thing to look at into the person in front of him, but he couldn't allow people to know about the locations of his caves either. But it was also obvious that he might need her assistance in this matter as well, especially if it did include beings of supernatural abilities. HE would have called a member of JSA or the JLA as an information source but they were all to busy in fact they still had yet to return his call about the Dawn Summers Girl. Catwoman better have a good reason for wanting the girl that she helped train to see a cave. Maybe she was trying to prove that she was different than what she had been, or something like that he mused beneath his cowl. That didn't make dealing with her any easier.

"Very well, he conceded, "pick one person to join you at the cave. Nightwing you know which one to go to?" He asked, turning to Dick, using the question to give the others the time they needed more than anything else. He knew that Dick new the setups of his caves, almost as well as Robin did.

"Yeah," Nightwing said, "though you'll have to guide Catwoman to that one." Batman nodded, the group all prepared to leave, they just had to wait for Slayer to decide who was going, and who was staying. Shadow joined in the end, after a heated debate between her and the witch, and it looks like she had just barely won the argument as it was. He would have preferred the young man; still it was better than having the witch, who was still an unknown power.

Huntress grabbed Shadow, leaving Slayer to team up with Nightwing. The two heroes would take a round about way to the cave on their motorcycles, while he and Catwoman would meet the group in the cave, via the Bat mobile. "I believe that you can find your own way back to wherever you are currently residing." He said, as he headed for the edge of the roof.

"Yeah sure, no problemo." The young man said, as he mocked saluted the group. "Our computer whiz, will talk that fancy computer person that you guys have, and they'll pool their resources together, and see what it is that we can find."

Batman nodded at the young man, who while he was joking the entire time, seemed ready to move any direction that he could, if he thought it was needed. He held himself in the way of a typical barroom brawler, added in with a touch of street fighter. He also seemed to be measuring each and every one of them for threats. The strategist then, the one who came up with the crazy plans that no one else would think of, he would bear watching, since he was a danger that was not obvious, despite his lack of combat skills.

Knight grabbed the witch's hand in his own. "All's ashore that's going ashore." He said, as he gave a cheery grin, and a wave before the two of them disappeared in a flash of light.

Batman nodded to Alfred, before he jumped off the building, leaping between various items, so he didn't have too much momentum when he finally landed. He and Catwoman both landed in the vehicle, and sped off. He waited a moment, as he slipped through various things, before he decided to ask her. "What can you tell me about her?"

"I'm not sure." The thief admitted, "The girl I trained, was an uncaring person with eyes that wouldn't even reflect life. That woman though? Well she's different; she has a slight grin, and a protective streak that I hadn't seen before in her. Though it does remind me of yours, and I never noticed any of the Meta human abilities in her before."

"A child that lost everything then, and was given the abilities to fight the dark creatures then." Batman said as he sped down an alley. "Her abilities most likely came after her time with you, unless the shock of her powers drove her to L.A, or something else shocked her into running."

"Whatever it was, most of them appeared to know what made her run though." Catwoman said, "The Knight, and Wicca both flinched when she discussed when she disappeared, which makes me think that she has known them far longer than we could suppose."

Batman nodded in agreement with her assessment of their behavior. "When we get back to the cave, I want you to begin trying to recall everything you can about the girl you trained. There may be something in that information that we can use."

"In other words, is there something there that you can manipulate into making her think, that your word is god's." Catwoman responded dryly, as they pulled into the cave. Batman didn't bother responding, as he jumped out, and began powering the cave up. This cave had been one of his meeting places with Huntress during NML, after she had allowed Penguin to encroach on his territory though he had left it alone he had left here though so that should she prove needed their was a place that she could come to if she was needed though that wasn't as big of a problem now that she was working with Oracle and the Black Canary. He seated himself at his computer and began establishing a link between himself and Oracle.

**O** he typed **its B have you found anything else on that secured file on the group.**

**Negative B the thing is as tight as some of the JLA files.**

**Keep working on it O has R's communicator or homing device activated yet?**

**Negative were still waiting for them to go off. If they have then there's some kind of interference that's blocking the signals.**

**Anything else?**

**Lets see oh yeah the Titans are asking when R is going to meet up with them.**

**Keep them away from here we have enough intruders here as it is without adding the problem that the Titans could add.**

**You got it. Anything else?**

**Has there computer expert contacted you yet.**

**Scarily yes.** Was Oracle's response. Batman frowned at this, not even the government could find Oracle unless she wanted them to, but in less than 24 hrs their computer expert had already found a way to communicate with Oracle. The group was such a mixture of signals, that they were sometimes hard to judge. Most of his theories on them had been blown out the window, due to the fact that the information that he had learned about the girl conflicted with the image that he had started to see with her. He was still uneasy about letting her near any of his caves, but the built in defenses could take care of that if they did try to come in without his permission, and this would give him the home court advantage.

Catwoman was lying stretched out like her namesake but also hidden in the shadows of some rock formations lost in thought as the two motorcycles finally came up.

Well that all for now blame house painting, holidays, working on a power ranger storyand lack of ideas for where to go on this chap forthe wait folks gotta go.


	19. Ch 19

Don't own any of this so don't sue if you don't know who owns the respective characters then you need to stop playing Ostrich and get your head out of the sand or maybe even read some of my other disclaimers. Thanks to everyone who reviewed I am now past the **100** mark!

On with the Tale!

Wesley was sipping some mint tea with a shot of vodka in it, while he worked on some files. He was currently cross-referencing the names that were on Gunn's list. There was a slight chance; the crime families had managed to miss a connection between the groups. He had written down a few names, when he came to the last name on the list The name startled him enough, that spit the tea out on the back of Gunn, who was doing the same thing with his list. "Lord tell me this isn't right." The Brit begged, of whatever higher beings that he both trusted, and believed.

"Wes, what's wrong man?" Gunn asked, as he looked up at his friend.

"The last name on this list, and you didn't tell me!" Wesley asked, as he pointed to the name.

"I didn't recognize it man." The lawyer shrugged. "So, who is she?" Gunn asked unconcerned, though curious.

"Who is she! Dawn Summers," he read. "Think about it for a moment Gunn. Who do we know by the name of Summers?"

"You don't mean."

"Buffy? Yes, that is Dawn's sister. Hopefully they aren't aware yet, or we could have serious problems."

"And the chances that she doesn't have someone with at least a bit of an eye on lil sis are what exactly Wes?"

"Not that good. Buffy has always been protective of people that she considers her family. In fact, she has an almost pack like mindset when it comes to them."

"So they're her crew." Gunn said, nodding in understanding. There were times he missed leading the street kids of LA against the demons and vampires. Back before he had met Angel. Now he was helping a demon and friend, fight the darkness that had taken his little sister.

"Yes." Wesley said. "Unfortunately, Buffy has a bit of a habit for making a mess of things that should be open and shut cases."

"Except for where Dawn is concerned Wes." Angel said, as he walked into the room. "When Dawn is concerned, Buffy has a habit of acting very irrational, and takes the shortest and easiest way of dealing with a problem, and to hell with the consequences." The vampire summarized. "Or at least according to the watcher records on her. "

"Yes." Wesley agreed, recognizing his own writing style, that Angel had just quoted.

"So what your saying then, is if we don't find these people fast, we're going to have to worry about a really pissed off Slayer that might stake first and ask questions later?"

"Precisely." Wesley said, nodding with the way that the man had said it. "If she asks any at all."

"You never did give her much credit." Angel noted.

Wes didn't say anything; he had mixed feelings about the head slayer.

Angel sighed. "I'm really going to hate doing this." He groaned to himself.

"Why? What is it that you're going to do?" Wesley was worried the vampire might try calling the slayer.

"Call Spike." He said, as he reached for the phone inside his jacket.

"No, absolutely not. I do not want to be in the same town as the three of you." Wesley said. "And you know she will come."

"Wes, he may be the only one who can track Dawn the way we need to. Besides she's already in town."

"What? And you didn't tell us."

"Because I just got back." Angel returned. "I found a couple of demon bars finally, but they were shut down due to remodeling they said."

"And this has exactly what to do with us?" Wesley asked

"Well the Furies protection doesn't extend this far Wes. Think you can figure the rest of it out?" Angel snapped, as he hit the speed dial on a number, that he hated having to have there.

"So she went and decided to go and ask questions?"

"Yeah."

"But, how did she learn where the locations of the various bars before you even got here?"

"Lets see Wes, we have the infamous Watcher's Council, the Guardians of all of the Slayers, with their zillions of records like you say." Gunn said sarcastically. "And said records, are now open for the Slayers to you know actually use. Instead of the watchers trying to decide how much they actually know. So you tell me, how she might have known where to look in this city?"

Wesley swallowed, as he realized that even he didn't know exactly what kind of information that the new council now had. And the worst part of it was, was that kind of information might be used for impulsive, but good acts. Like the destruction of relics, that held ancient beings, that should stay locked away for a reason.

"Come on Spike, answer already." Angel growled. Apparently unfazed, at the thought of the impulsive Slayer, having all of that information at her beck and call. She would do what she thought was right, just as he would do the same when the time came.

"Lo?" Spike finally answered, waiting for the final till ring till he answered. Angel was sure, that the younger peroxide wearing, idiotic vampire Childe did it just to annoy him. Damn caller I.D. He didn't have time for this crap from the other vampire.

"Spike, I need you in Gotham now." Angel ordered.

"What, no hello Peaches? It's a wonder that you managed stay undead as long as you have, the way you treat people." The other vampire shot at him.

"Spike, I really don't have time for this." Angel said, growling into the phone. "I need you here now."

"And why should I bother coming to save your worthless Irish born hide?"

" Dawn's in Gotham."

"Nibblet?" Spike asked, his voice suddenly going serious. "What's she doing in Gotham? She should be with Buffy." The vampire sounded slightly frantic now, with those three words. "Doesn't Ripper know any better than to send her to a city that has an even death count with Sunneyhell? And that's without having a bloody hell mouth sitting right on top of it!"

_'What kind of hold, did the younger summers girl have on the peroxide brain idiot anyways?'_ "I have no idea Spike, but she's been kidnapped, and I only have a few days before the top blows off of all this. After that everyone starts killing everybody else."

The younger vampire swore angrily. "I'll be there as soon as the wankers get the jet fueled." He promised.

Angel nodded. "Be sure to bring Illyria. There's no telling the trouble she could get into on her own." He then snapped his phone shut. "What?" He asked, as he looked at the two men that were staring at him, as if he had grown another head or something.

"Lets see, you and Spike didn't argue once during that entire conversation, and it was more than point two seconds long. Gunn said dryly.

"Spike and I can get along when we have to Gunn, we're professionals." Angel defended.

"Really?" Wes said, arching his eyebrow at Angel. "I seem to recall a rather absurd conversation containing Astronauts and Cavemen."

"Well yeah, but that was then, this is now." The vampire argued. "And right now, we need to get to work. Try and figure exactly where it is that these guys are likely to come, and who's the most likely target." The other two nodded, dropping the subject about the two vampires ability to cooperate together.

"Its amazing isn't it?" Wes said, "Wolfram and Hart get a new latch on this dimension, all because we do a good deed."

"Yeah Wes, I know. On the other hand, we could just wait for them to kill the kids who parents don't pay up to whoever these guys are, and act like we have a clear conscience as well." Angel snapped. "Now we have to deal with an unknown, am I right?"

"Yes, I did a rather thorough check, and there are virtually none of our clients in Gotham. In fact, the only thing Gotham is used for by any of them, is as a stopping point for various individuals." Wesley explained.

"Yes, and the demon population is smaller than one would expect for a city as large as Gotham. Though the smallness may have to do with the fact that there is not a whole lot of raw magic here, and the protector here is rather impressive."

"What? This Bat dude?" Gunn scoffed, smirking. "All urban legend bro, the guy is nothing but some part demon according to our files. There's no way that he could ever have survived half of the things that he has if he was a human." The dark man seemed certain of this.

"Possibly, I am unsure at the moment. After all, you, Fred, Cordy and I, have all survived fights with various beings and survived. But I will look into it, if you think its of any worth."

"Don't worry about it. I doubt that we'll get in his way, whoever or whatever he is." Angel said waving the concern off. If he becomes a problem, I'll deal with him." Angel assured them. "Do we have anything else we need to worry about?"

"Well," Gunn said. "We had a lunch meeting with the power in this town, but he said an unexpected problem has come up. Though according to what are reports say, it's probably just him getting in some honey."

"Great, so the power here is a playboy? "

"Yeah, he owns a good chunk of Gotham legally."

"You must be talking about Wayne then. When did he become a power in Gotham?"

Well he's not really a power, so much as a person with a lot of influence. The person that has the main power would be the guy that actually runs stuff for him."

"And that would be?"

"Mr. L Fox is the bigwig. I'm beginning to think that if we want to be seen as a real business, then we need a lunch date with him, not Wayne.

"What all do we know about Wayne? Is he worth getting on our side?"

"He's actually the kind of person that would be good for us to represent." Gunn admitted grudgingly. "Especially since we're trying to change our image, and get the good guys to trust us."

"So we could get into a lot of closed doors, and we could gain a measure of respectability if we had him willing to let us represent him." Angel concluded

"Yeah, we're also seeing if we can find anything about his son."

"Son? I thought he was a bachelor?"

"He is, but he has an adopted kid, or rather an heir who is legally his son."

"I'm lost."

"Basically, he raised the kid since he was nine, but didn't officially adopt him till he was legally an adult."

"What's the kid's name?"

"Grayson. He lives in the fishing village not to far from here. He was a cop there, but the cops there were a bit to dirty for him to comfortably work there. In all, there was about four actual good cops when Grayson started up. Only one of them has actually made it past lieutenant."

"Sounds like a rough place, anything else we can use on the guy?"

"Not really, I think the guy must have a computer whiz under him though. No way Wayne really has a record this clean."

"Don't worry about it too much, now lets get back to the case."

"Lets see these guys have hit just about every bigwig in the city without being seen or spotted. That means if its mystical, were dealing with either invisibility, or time freezing. If its Invisibility, then could we use some kind of time slowing thing or other? Then we could just zap em, before they could disappear again."

"Unfortunately, there appear to be detection spells all over the drop points, that allow them to transport the moment someone starts watching for such a device. For something like that to work, it would have to be set to a mist like substance."

"Okay, um how about we leave a blade swing back and forth over the money or mystical trackers?"

"Wolfram and Hart, has already tried tracking devices, but they're being blocked as well. Which is why they sent us to deal with this mess. They said since we're so good at doing the impossible, that this one should be right down our alley."

"So in other words, we're just gonna have to fake this till we can figure something out."

"Joy." Gunn grumbled. "So we meet with some of the other moneybags then, and assure them. Angel does his thing of disappearing and all, leaving us to kiss the collective ass of the crime bosses."

"That about sums it up."

"Why can't I be the vampire with a soul?" Gunn asked, as he slumped back in his chair. The black man, had been having more and more trouble since Fred's death, stomaching the work that he was doing and they all knew that it was only a matter of time before he would need to cut loose some of the anger that he was feeling. Maybe Gotham would help him relax then again it might not but they had to at least try to get this case done.

"Good luck." Angel said, as he headed back toward the sewer entrance. He really wished that he had spent more time here. The sewer cavers here, were like nothing that he had ever seen. '_But Gotham had very little other than easy pickings to offer vampires and demons. Even most of the artwork that came here, was just that, and signified no mystical importance. It could almost be a fluke but the chance that someone doing kidnappings with mystical means and that they captured Dawn would have to be a rather impressive coincidence_.' The vampire thought.


	20. Ch 20

Don't own any of this so don't sue if you don't know who owns the respective characters then you need to read some of my other disclaimers. On with the Tale!

Sorry this took so long no good excuse other than I couldn't figure how I wanted the action scenes to go.

Buffy took off the helmet, and looked around the cave that they had entered. A cave, that was actually in the middle of the city. '_This town is almost as screwed up as a good old hellmouth town.'_ She thought wryly, she frowned as it actually made sense. Now she'd have to have one of the watcher people see if there might be a hellmouth somewhere around here, or if it was something else entirely. Cause if there was a hellmouth here, then it would explain why she felt comfy here. Course if that was right, then where were the demons and other baddies? And from what she had seen, there hadn't been enough. At least not for a town, no city this size.

She glanced around the room, and noticed the large computer. It was set up, so that looked like both the front, and the side of the room at the same time. Shadows were all over the place, giving a person plenty of places to disappear into. _'And here we had been proud of their little secret hiding place in Casa de Summers.'_ She thought to herself, as she looked at the training area, nearby were several racks, which held a variety of hand-to-hand weapons. Most of the things were the stuff that the vigilantes carried on their person; there was also some that they didn't. But they were all in place, waiting for someone to use. If everything didn't seem to be so crazy right now, she was sure she would be more impressed with the whole set up. Fortunately Faith. '_No Shadow,_' was impressed enough for the both of them.

The whole nickname thing really creeped her out. Fortunately Spike, and some of the local vamps had conditioned her to answer to the name Slayer already. She understood the whole his town thing, but wearing a mask was so different than what she was used to. The only good thing about the outfit was that it was made out of leather and Kevlar. She couldn't remember the last time she had comfortably gone slaying, without at least some leather on. Still though, it was odd fighting, or at least looking ready to fight in this. She hadn't gotten to see how well it stood up in actual combat. If you didn't count the sparring she and Faith had done earlier. Besides, she didn't really need the Kevlar. She could probably count the number of times that someone had tried to shoot her in seven and half years. _'Not counting the lovely people that worked for Walsh that is.'_ She thought, annoyed at the memory.

"So tell me. How the hell did you guys find this place anyways?" Faith asked curious. "I mean seriously, this place is totally wicked."

"I'm not sure actually." Nightwing said, as he took his own helmet off. "And don't ask me how he moved all the stuff you see in here either. That's a carefully guarded bat clan trade secret. One that we're not allowed to talk about."

"Fair enough." The girl said shrugging. "We got our own trust issues about things like that." Huntress scowled darkly at the other woman, and the way that she was interacting with Nightwing.

"Don't worry about it." Buffy told her. "She always knows how to make a good first impression. After that though, she gets kind of sloppy, when they see some of the things that she's capable of. Besides, he's hoping she'll get sloppy and tell him something."

Huntress nodded stiffly, as she watched the two heroes talk. "I was never given such a warm welcome. And I've had to fight, for every centimeter to get to the point where they don't look down on me as much as they used to. And I hardly get a muttered thanks for all of the work I do." She rounded on the shorter woman. "You waltz in here, with the partial approval of a glorified thief. A thief I've helped chase more times than I care to think about. And wham." She slammed her fist into her hand in frustration. "You two are brought to a place that is a backup base. I haven't dared to come anywhere near here, since everything went down in No Man's Land. And if I did, I'm pretty sure I would have been used as a practice target."

"Is it really safe to talk about that stuff here?"

"Your right." Huntress shook her head; she never let people know how much she craved approval of the bat. Yet here was some person who fought demons and such things, and she had opened up and told all to her. "What did you do to me?" Her voice had dropped a few levels; she was surprised that it wasn't coming out in icicles.

"I just seem to be good at getting people to open up." Slayer said, backpedaling, enough to give the vigilante some room. If her temper was even halfway like Faith's, then she didn't want to seem like she was crowding her. "I'd say off hand, that that you're feeling under appreciated right now. You fiercely want his approval, but you don't want hand outs either."

"Stay out of my head." The other woman said. She was uncomfortable, how close this person was getting

"Easy there." The demon hunter said. "I'm not one of those mind readers, besides having mind powers is more trouble than it's really worth."

"Former mind reader?"

"Yep, 24 hours of absolute headaches." Slayer shuddered at the memories that brought up. "Though it did help finding out that the lunch lady was poisoning the Jell-O. But on the opposite side, I had to learn that my mom and watcher got a little to close for comfort. I just wish that I had there had been a test on that day."

"And I thought my school was tough." Nightwing said, from where he and Faith were standing.

Huntress scowled at him, but they didn't know how much he had heard, and she wasn't going to ask.

"Oh that wasn't the only trouble I was having that day either, and is there a reason that you're eavesdropping on us?"

"Cause if I don't, my eyes might wander." He said brightly, before he realized the error he had just said. But he realized it, when he saw all three women roll their eyes at him, as they brushed past him.

Shadow stopped though, and turned to face the former Robin. "I can help you with your wandering eye Hotwings. She said, as she toyed with the top of her shirt. "How soft are those training mats anyways?" She asked coyly, glancing at the nearby training mats. Not waiting for an answer, she headed after the other two.

Nightwing swallowed nervously, before he headed after them. 'Sometimes it really sucked being him.'

"So what have you got?"

"We have a list of all the people taken on the screen to your left." A voice answered through a speaker. The voice was heavily filtered leaving the two women struggling to listen to it.

"Didn't know Oracle still used those voice filters." Huntress muttered.

"On the screen to your right are maps of Gotham, and some of the neighboring towns. The blinking lights show where exactly people have been taken." The maps were blinking with red dots, scattered all over them.

"So its more than one town that these guys are focusing on? They're hitting both of these places for people?"

"Precisely." Batman said from his spot in front of the giant computer.

"Hey Nightwing. The Haven's mayor has just had his kids taken about 20 minutes ago." The voice reported. Faith looked over at her sister Slayer and mouthed 'Female'. The other nodded, but didn't do anything about it.

"Really? I thought that they were being flown to Metropolis." Nightwing said frowning.

"They were caught just before they boarded the plane."

" Great." The hero grumbled. "So has he decided to try and pin it on me, or is he actually trying to find out what's going on?"

"He seems willing to bury the hatchet against you for now."

"Joy."

"Let me guess, you're not on his Christmas card list"

"Something like that." He responded dryly. "You'd think that my collecting that favor off of him, would have at least made him neutral instead of hating my guts for it."

"Ok, so if you have a rough idea where people were taken, then you have a rough idea where they might have been taken. Right?" Slayer said hopefully.

"We have a few possible areas to check." Batman admitted. He noticed Batgirl slip in silently. Slayer tensed slightly, as she felt a new figure enter, while Shadow didn't tense till she was half again as close. Batgirl shook her head to answer some unasked question by Batman. Batman waited till the girl was perched in a seat, that kept her out of arms reach of the two Demons Hunters.

He mused to himself for a moment. _'These two were different than most of your heroes who had actually chosen this type of lifestyle. Where as only a few people had actually given them the choice whether or not they wanted to fight. They fought because it was a part of them. Much like Wonder Woman in a way. Though he doubted, that they would have it any other way, or if they would dare to admit it. The taller of the two seemed to exude a kind of wildness, and a cocky attitude similar to that of some of the younger heroes that enjoyed the thrill of the fight. Much like Wally and Kyle once had displayed when they had been part of the JLA. Slayer on the other hand, was actually more along the lines of the more experienced heroes. Similar to Diana in fact, wanting, and not wanting to fight all at the same time.'_

"I presume that you still want to investigate the warehouse that your informant tipped you off to?" He asked.

"Yeah I did. But you wanted to talk, so I figured we'd do that then go there. And like I said, your town, your rules. I just hope I don't break to many of them, before I get an idea on what they are."

Batman nodded, but chose to ignore some of the sarcasm about bending his rules. She was bonding with Huntress rather well he noted. An unexpected event, he had thought that Shadow would have tried that. But she seemed more interested it seemed in Nightwing, than in the female hero. He also noted, that she was staying far away from the corner where Catwoman was watching them. "You chose a place, while defendable from ground enemies, aerial enemies would have been able to take you down with ease." He didn't care much for power games, but if she wanted to push buttons then she better be aware that she was challenging a master.

"Sorry, I'm not used to fighting on that level." The girl admitted backing off, almost as fast as she had pushed buttons.

Batman paused for a moment as he analyzed the young woman. She was starting to let all the stress get to her. Perhaps she needed rest, and to relive some stress. "You aren't fit for duty." He told her.

"What are you talking about?" Slayer practically growled. "Dawn is my responsibility, so I will be doing this."

"Not in your current condition." Batman argued calmly and emotionlessly. "You are distracted and unfocused. Due to the combination of Catwoman's reemergence in your life, and what it means to the way your teammates see you. The frustration of not finding the hostages, and who knows what else."

"And what do you suggest Dr. Phil?" She asked bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"A nice trip to the tropics or something?"

"Four hours of sleep for all of you." He said glaring at the young adults, who had all let themselves become emotionally distraught over this. He would have this talk with Oracle later. He promised himself. Fortunately she was in better shape then any of the others. But Huntress was running ragged from searching for her cousin, Nightwing was blaming himself for letting Tim go like that, and the girls were so frustrated that it had taken all of their energy. When the time finally came, he would only have Batgirl, and possibly the Black Canary able to stand up in a fight as it was. And if the threat was larger than it appeared, he might need all of them at 100. '_Even the Demon Hunters._' he admitted to himself.

"We'll rest when were dead." Slayer answered.

"I won't have you endangering my city, or my people." Batman said coolly, at the way she was willing to throw away her life. "There are beds over there. You will rest for four hours." He ignored the attempted protest. "Oracle inform our allies what is happening, and tell them to patch in an audio transmission if it would make them feel better. I don't want a mistake for forcing them to rest, as a thought that I'm trying to take them out."

"Will do boss." Oracle said.

"Don't bother." Shadow said. "I just finished a bit of mental chatter with our witch, and she says thanks. Seems like she didn't want to deal with either of us with no sleep again." Batman nodded, as he turned back to the computer as he updated his file on the witch to include telepathy. He would have to increase the power to the dampeners after this mission. He still had a few sources to check, and he wanted to check them out before he got some of his own advice though. Though from the looks Slayer was sending him, he thought he might need to drug her first.

"Have a fun four hours, you might need some titanium restraints to keep them on the bed though." The voice of an amused Knight said over the speaker.

"Batman out." The head vigilante said, as he began looking over the physical reports that the scanners had taken.

"So you want me to investigate the warehouses in that area?"

Batman nodded to Catwoman. Batgirl had already slipped out, and was probably already heading toward the clock tower. She would see if Barbara needed anything. He was going to need all of them ready for action soon. He just hoped they were ready when the time came. There had to be more to this than simple kidnappings, he just had to figure out what it was.

A silent warning alarm went off, frowning he activated the hidden camera, to check what it was that could be down in that area. The screen flickered for a moment, and then an image of the sewers came up. He had half expected to find Croc there, what he hadn't expected was to find someone fighting with the creature. He watched for a moment, as a man twisted his the arm of the former human behind his back, then sent him flying with a powerful kick. The man said something, but the audio wasn't picking things up anymore. Evidently something had struck the camera and the audio had been lost. Croc picked himself up, and body slammed the man. Batman watched in fascination, as the figure got his legs between them, and pushed him back, slamming the reptile into the wall. There were already a few dents in the wall, some were human shaped, and others were the shape of Croc. How was a human beating him like that? He didn't appear to be any Meta that he had heard of, or had been keeping tabs on. And it was important part of his work, that he keep track of the metas for various reasons. Chief among them was, he didn't want metas messing up his city. He shut the screen down, and headed for the batmobile. He had to stop this, before they decided to take their fight to the streets. With beings as strong as they were, innocents could easily be injured.

He slid into his seat, and shot out of the backup cave. "Oracle, cross reference the unknown in the new sewer cam."

"Right." The computer hacker answered, as she studied the screen. "Got it. Looks like Slayer was holding back on some of the things, that she knew."

Batman looked down at the picture before him. It was a picture of one of the men that used to work with Slayer. The one who was currently running a branch of Wolfram-and-Hart. The company gave most lawyers bad names. The firm worked almost exclusively with people that were guilty, and often managed to win on technicalities. It was actually rather surprising that Luthor was not a client of theirs. According to the file, he had been working as a private investigator for the past four years. Then for unknown reasons, he and his staff were suddenly given the reins to the LA branch of the law firm. It seemed to have happened shortly after a particularly massive slaughter to all of the people that worked there. Why would a man and his people who had lived in the slums of the street just barely making a profit be given that much power? There was a secondary file on the man filed by a former LAPD officer by the name of Kate Lockley. Evidently she had been getting close to the supernatural aspect of what was going on. But she had also been silenced, since the file hadn't been updated in a few years either.

"Oracle what happened to Officer Lockley?"

"She was fired for her imaginative stories, and for letting an unknown assailant attack a fellow police officer."

"I see."

"She is currently working as a security guard at WayneCorp in Washington."

"Check her file." Batman ordered, as he stopped the vehicle. "See if she's a plant, or if its one of those cases of her trying to get far away as she can from her problem." He glanced at the sun overhead. By the time the others got up, it would be close to five o'clock. There would be just enough sun to protect them. But dark enough to attract the early bird vampires.

He stepped out of his car, and dropped silently into the sewer access. He could still hear the sounds of the fighting going on. The unknown had to be impressively strong, if he could combat Croc for so long. He slipped through the shadows, and listened as the sound of the two fighters got closer and closer. He slipped down one tunnel, and found a small overhanging of pipes to sit on. The fight had progressed past the point where he had first seen them, and was now at a familiar place. According to what Tim had told him, this was most likely the place where Bane had taken him after he had unleashed all of the people in prison.

Moving as quietly as possible, he finally spotted the two fighting on a ledge several feet below him. The man didn't even appear to be breathing very heavily. His style was impressive, and showed a mastery of combat like he saw in only a few people. Some of the movements looked like they belong to forms of combat all of there own. Like it had been designed with enhanced abilities in mind. While others, was a mixture of Oriental fighting styles. He recognized Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan. Slayer had some of the same starting stances. In fact, he wouldn't be overly surprised if she had learned them from him. Something else to add to the to small file that he had about the mystical Meta's.

The figure was finally holding Croc against the ground, and was glaring at the overgrown lizard. "Look, I really don't have a whole lot of time for this. So I'll ask you once more scale boy. Who's doing all of these kidnappings?"

"You think I'm impressed by your threats flesh bag?" Croc growled angrily. "It won't take much for me to get out of your hold."

"Why is it the uglier the monster, the more pathetic the threats? You realize that with a few quick movements I can snap your neck right?" The young man asked. The figure watching them narrowed his eyes, as he withdrew a batarangs. Should the Meta try to carry out his threat, he would be ready.

Snarling, Croc jerked free and, pushed the man. The creature then lunged at the man. Acting on instinct, the young man flipped the monster over his shoulder, and down towards the rest of the sewer. "I am Not Happy." The man yelled, before he fell down from either exhaustion or his wounds. Batman was unsure which it might be, as he landed on the ground.

Looking up as if he had heard something, the man turned his way. "Your real?" Was all he got out, as he leaned against a nearby pipe.

"An impressive display." Batman said, as he looked far below where there was a pool of water that drained out into the sea. The man just nodded, as he got up. "Why are you in my city?"

"Got asked to do a job." The vampire said. "He was around, so I thought he might have answers."

"I could say the same about you."

"Yeah sure. What are you able to tell me about this kidnapping spree?"

Batman was impressed; the man hadn't said what he had on the case, but what he was able. "It has to do with half-breeds of a kind, that is all I can tell you. Now who sent you here?"

"Wolfram and Hart were asked to investigate the kidnappings. I'm in charge of the group that's doing it." The two stared at each other; neither had volunteered information that wasn't already easy to known.

"Don't kill anyone." Batman ordered, he then sprang into the shadows. He would wait and see, what it was that the man, or whatever he was did next.

Shrugging the young man pulled himself up. He then moved silently into the shadows of the sewers, and was gone. Batman was impressed this man was as good at the shadow game, if not than the slayers appeared to be. How much had they learned from him? He could be the key in finding a psychological weakness in the young warriors.

He returned to his car, and paused for a moment as he almost sensed something watching him. "Activate thermals." He said quietly. His eye slits glowed a demonic red, as the device built into his cowl helped him search for any unknowns. There was nothing he could see. He stepped into the car, and drove off.

Angel stepped out of the shadows, as he watched the souped up car leave. He had been amused when he heard him activate some kind of thermal scan when he had heard him. But he now had the man's scent, and that was all he wanted. To see if he was a man or a demon, and to see if he could catch the man's scent. If it came down to it, he would be able to notice if he passed him again. He couldn't track him as easily, but he had some idea of what he was facing now. He faded back into the shadows of Gotham, and dialed for his people to meet him. 'This just got more interesting.' The vampire mused.

Buffy sighed, as she lay on the cot. It was kind of embarrassing that she had been told by the hero to take a nap. Here she was, the supposed leader of an organization whose soul purpose was to fight demons and such things. Y she couldn't even control herself enough, when a problem rose up.

"Hey B you still up?"

"Yeah."

"So what do you think will happen if we ignore the big bad brood boy?"

"You mean other than the fact he might make us run an obstacle course?" Nightwing asked from a couch that he was lying on, while reading the latest police report on the case.

"No thanks, I don't think I want to deal with another obstacle course." Faith said. I had enough of those with Wes."

"Remember when he would actually try and keep up with us?"

"God that was funny. Watching him come in huffing and puffing, while we were fresh as daisies. Though I think he might be able to last longer now."

"Really. You think so?" Buffy asked skeptically.

"Yeah, something or other caused him to finally grow a pair. And let me tell you, when he grows a pair, he really grows a pair. Kind of reminded me of the way Giles gets when he decides to let his dark side out. What do you guys call it again?"

"His Ripper side? Yeah that can be a bit odd, but after seven years of holding it in. Its really not all that surprising that he would try that sort of thing every now and then."

"So, we either behave like good little girls, or he'll put us through a bunch of tests. Is that it?"

"Pretty much." Huntress said from where she was trying to find her calm center.

"Hey you got s whetstone around here?" Buffy asked, as she pulled a knife from her right boot

"And some extra wood to make some stakes?"

"If it'll help you calm down, I think we can come up with something." Nightwing said flashing a smile at the two Demon Hunters. After Nightwing had retrieved the requested items, the group waited talking about various Cd's and movies. They even discussed some of the missions they had been on before.

Batman came in a few hours later, he paused as he saw the group talking easily. Some of the tension that they had been feeling earlier, had obviously faded away, leaving the two metas and two vigilantes much easier to control for now.

"Nightwing, we're going to check out the warehouse, while Slayer and Shadow take on the task of watching our backs."

"I don't think so pointy ears." Shadow said, as she stood up to confront the Batman over this. "We're just as well trained as you are, and this is our type of work. Don't you usually handle the insane criminals or something like that?"

"Then you will not be accompanying me." Batman said calmly, as if he didn't care one way or the other, which way they chose. The way he said it though, left a note of finality to his words.

_Faith behave! _Willow's voice echoed in the dark haired slayer's head. _Besides, if the Batman's as good as legends say he is then you just might actually learn something from him._

_But._ Faith thought sent back.

_C'mon Faith, you make it sound like you're scared you're not up to whatever standard that it is that Batman has set up._ Buffy thought sent, as she was twirling a knife in her hand.

_Oh I can take whatever brood brains here can throw at us._ Faith argued back at her sister slayer. She resisted the urge to turn around and knock her friend into one of the rock formations for that comment.

_Good, then lets do it._ Buffy thought sent back at her cheekily. Faith merely scowled at her, but quickly shut her mouth.

"Are you done with your conversation yet?"

The girls swallowed nervously, how had he heard them? This method was supposedly one of the most secure there was. Yet he had figured out exactly when they were talking, and when they had stopped. "The sensors in the room picked up an increase in your brain activity." He explained, as he nodded toward a computer screen that was lighted up. "Also, there was the way you cut off in the middle of your complaining how stiff you body became, and the glazed over look that your eyes took on."

"We're that obvious?" Slayer asked in surprise. "So much for supposedly undetectable methods of communication." She muttered too herself.

"No way is completely undetectable." Batman told her.

"Right. I'll try to remember that." She said, while she pretended to write it down in an imaginary notebook. Nightwing snorted at this. "So, if we want to go out and do our thing. Your need some kind of proof that we won't slow you down, is that about it?"

"Yes." Batman said ignoring the flippant way the girl was talking. "Enhanced abilities mean nothing in Gotham."

"So what do you want us to do?"

"Beat them." Batman said, as he nodded toward Huntress and Nightwing.

"Oh come on, this was Catwoman's idea wasn't it?" Slayer whined.

"It is the fastest method of evaluating your combat effectiveness, in the amount of time that we have."

"Fine, what kind of weapon do you want use, or are we doing the whole unarmed thing? Cause when we find the half-breeds; they're going to be a lot stronger than your average bear. And vamps they need a stake at the very least."

"Weapons then, but lets try and not have anything to sharp." Nightwing asked. "I don't want to be to much of a target." The vigilante flashed her a grin, which reminded the Slayer of a cocky vampire hero in a way.

"Deal." the girl said, as she picked up one of Robin's staffs off the wall. "Collapsible?" She asked Batman. The vigilante nodded, as he let his cape cover him. "Cool." She flipped the weapon out and in a couple of times, while she studied the rest of the cave. "Hold this, will ya." She told her partner, as she tossed the weapon that she wore strapped on her back. The other girl snagged it out of the air, and absently twirled the weapon.

"Should we get Catwoman here then she can see this?" Nightwing asked as he stretched out on the training mats. "I'm sure she'd love to see what it is that you can do. Especially after all this time."

"Yeah, well she'll just have to wait till another time. Who knows maybe we'll make a movie of it later." She shot back. "Besides, the fact that she wanted to see this is all the more reason to do this without her around. Don't you think?"

"Hey, its your funeral."

"Are you two going to fight, or are you going to trade semi witty remarks with each other?"

"And you say I'm the party pooper?" Slayer grumbled, as she turned back to the other person on the mat.

"Some people have absolutely no taste."

"Enough." Huntress growled in annoyance. "Can you two just fight already? Its not like you're the protégées of two sworn enemies or something."

"Actually they kind of are." Faith pointed out. "Well, they had teachers that had different ideas for them at least."

The two shot glares at their on again off again partners. "Some people have no appreciation for the more subtle parts of fighting."

Batman was interested despite himself, if the girl could fight as well as she could talk, then she might actually give Nightwing a run for his money. The grinning duo let the smiles on their faces fade as they now looked at each other. The humor was gone as they began to size each other up. It appeared that they were both experienced fighters. They were both fighters for the light though they appeared to be dark warriors. Though their fights were for different causes they were alike, yet different in their own ways. One chose this life, the other was chosen. It would truly be interesting to see which was better.

The two launched themselves at each other with anticipation. Slayer held her staff in a one handed grip, and twirled it as they met. Nightwing caught the staff against his combat sticks, and then kicked her in the stomach making her stumble back. The girl merely smiled at this, and used her free hand to backhand Nightwing who rolled with the blow. Slayer did a large jump, and used her staff as a club hoping to catch him on the shoulders. The young man barely rolled out of the way of the blow in time, to dodge the shot as the missed shot slapped against the ground next to him. Nightwing responded with a scissor kick that brought her down. The two sprang to their feet, and circled each other carefully. Nightwing tried to get in close, but Slayer seemed determined to keep him from getting close enough to do anything.

Despite her superior strength and speed, the slayer was not trying to make this a slugging match, but was trying the hit and fade method. A style Nightwing was well accustomed to using himself, but rarely had to go up against. This meant that the girl had come across several other beings that had out muscled, or out classed her in the past. It also meant that she was not going to be as easy to catch off guard as some of the other Meta humans Nightwing faced, when they went up against him for the first time.

Batman watched, as Nightwing flipped her over, but the girl twisted and managed to land in a crouch. She then used an open palm to strike at Nightwing's shoulder, which he easily ducked. The two were only halfheartedly using their weapons anymore, unless it was to gain a moment to renew their attack. Spinning, the two each went for an elbow strike Nightwing ducked though instead of trying to meet her with an identical tactic.

"Oracle analysis?"

"She's good, either on the same level or a level below Nightwing. Though if he were to use those fancy flips and stuff that he does, he might have her at a disadvantage. Though she seems to have some gymnastics training of her own. Not as advanced as his though."

"Does she appear to be holding back?"

"Only on the amount of muscle that she uses, which means she's not as strong as they say she is, or she has more control than most metas do during a fight."

"Her speed? "

"She's using some of it, but I think she's holding back on using it constantly."

"Is it possible that this is because this is a training session?"

"Possibly." Oracle admitted.

Nightwing obviously sensing that they were coming to a draw increased the amount of gymnastics being used. He flipped over the Slayer, and brought both of his staves back towards the back of her head Slayer caught the blows by bringing the staff up over her head, and slightly back. "So her speed is a reactionary thing?" Batman asked, as he continued guessing.

"Looks like it."

Slayer caught a foot aimed at her stomach." I always did want to take a super hero for a spin." She joked, as she twisted the leg.

Twisting his body along with the leg, Nightwing brought his other foot around at Slayer. "Be careful of the footnotes in this subject." He warned, they can be kind of heady.

She just barely ducked the foot. "You missed." She commented, as she jabbed at him.

"What can I say, the notes went over your head. Beside most people with super strength aren't as vertically challenged as you." He taunted.

The smile she wore disappeared changing into a scowl. "Why is it, that everyone thinks to be a female hero you have to wear some kind of Teddy and be six feet five inches?"

"What can I say, Wonder Woman set a stereotype." Nightwing said, backing up enough to laugh at the mental image of WW reaction when she heard of this. "Bats you have got to take a picture when you tell her about that." He called over his shoulder. Batman nodded, his eyes glinted showing the only amusement he felt. He saw Huntress and Shadow chuckling at the comment though.

"So, you ready to quit holding back?" She asked, as she ducked one punch, only to step into the other one.

"Sure." The two sprang into the air. Slayer using her enhanced muscles to push her up, while Nightwing used years of training to head up. The two now on a nearby rock continued fighting.

"Geez, can they get any more Xena?" Shadow asked bored by the fight. She watched as Slayer went into overdrive, and began to use her speed to nearly it's full extent. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" She crowed, as Buffy actually jumped in the air, and sent a couple of kicks to his chest. She watched now in awe as Hotwings managed to block some of the shots. _Hell, not even Angel was that good._ She thought, as Hotwings back flipped back to the ground to get away from the onslaught of blows. The guy had been giving almost as good as he had been receiving though. She noticed, as the two were both regaining their breaths from the blows they had taken. _Only reason Angel lasted as long as he did was because B didn't like hitting him._ B finally followed after him, and was met with a foot to her stomach. Rolling with the shot, she came up a few feet away.

"Stop." Batman ordered. "You have proved yourself as capable Slayer. The two nodded, a mixture of regret and relief on their faces. Nightwing bowed to her, and after a moments hesitation Slayer returned the gesture. "Huntress, Shadow." Batman said.

Faith ignored the man, as B came over grinning like an idiot. "Damn, if I didn't know that you didn't like this sort of thing, I would have sworn that you were actually having fun out there." She smirked, as the blonde slayer blushed. "So did you manage to get a feel?" She asked, getting down to the most important part of business first.

" I was a bit to busy to purposely try and get an idea of what's in his pants." Slayer returned, reverting to business mode.

"Doesn't mean you didn't though, specially since you ain't answering the question." She gave her fellow slayer a knowing wink.

"Go have her fight you." Slayer grumbled at her partner, as she took the scythe and the largest of the fighting knives from her fellow slayer, and handing her staff over.

"So, its the two crazy girls fighting each other eh?" Faith asked, as she looked her opponent up and down.

"Looks like it Shadow." The Huntress returned, sneering slightly at the other woman. The two began fighting; Huntress was using her assassin styled combat, while Shadow was using her combination of street and slayer skills. The two women each whirled a staff in their hands, but the Huntress was slowly beating the shorter girl back, as she was obviously the better fighter with that weapon. Managing a quick kick, the dark haired slayer gained the room she needed. She tossed the staff at Huntress, further distracting the vigilante, as she rolled out of the way of the missile. Grinning Shadow drew a training knife from the wall. Twirling it, the slayer let a feral grin cross her face, as she caught the staff on her makeshift weapon, and began beating back the Huntress now. Dodging a slice, Huntress back flipped, and pulled out her small crossbow. She quickly snapped a headless bolt off at her sparring partner. Shadow easily snagged the bolt out of the air, before it could hit her, and threw it to the side. The cocky smile made it seem like it was something she did all the time.

Narrowing her eyes, Huntress ran at her smirking Demon Hunter. Shadow dodged the punch, and grabbed the billowing cape. Holding the cape, she swung the vigilante around once then let go. "See, with a jacket we don't have to worry about someone doing that." She teased.

Huntress launched herself back at the cocky person, and caught her by the arm and twisted it back. "A cocky person, is gonna be dead on Gothams streets if you don't watch yourself girl. Your not in a nice safe city like LA or Boston anymore." Huntress hissed, as she threw the other woman down the mat.

"So why are you so sure that I'm from around LA?" Shadow asked as she flipped back up and waved her weapon in the air.

"Your partner has the accent, while yours is all windy city." The other woman said, as she ducked the swinging weapon, but took a shot to the chin.

"How long are you going to keep this up?" Slayer asked Batman. "If you want to recon before all of the dark loving blood suckers come out, we are gonna have to leave soon."

"I am aware of that." Batman responded. "But I would rather wait another day, than take a person incapable of fighting the types of people that we are likely to meet."

"Your town." The slayer said. "But if I find out that Summers got hurt, because you we're to busy making sure that we were aware of the kinds of rules. You will not find me to be a very forgiving person."

"I have to worry about all of the victims Slayer, not just your charge. So please, be quite while you companion is tested, unless you would prefer to go without her?"

"She'd never let me hear the end of it." The woman said, watching as Huntress kicked Faith in the small of her back again, but received a return backhand when the other woman turned around, sending Huntress flying.

Grumbling to herself, Slayer went over to Nightwing who was prepping his bike. "Oracle?"

" She relies more on her abilities than Slayer does. She also lacks certain finesse to her skill, but she also has the training that makes her dangerous. And while I know you can pluck a speeding arrow out of the air, you can't do it anywhere near as casually as she did it. I'd say she's lower than Huntress when it comes to skill, but she has the raw instinct that makes her a survivor. The kind of person that is good for a scrap, but sometimes needs someone to watch them."

"Very well." Batman stepped forward, causing the two to hesitate for a moment. "Mount your rides ladies." Batman ordered, ending the fight. "We have a warehouse to investigate."

The two women glared at each other, but nodded curtly at Batman, as they backed away from each other. Huntress took Slayer with her this time, while Shadow rode with Batman. Nightwing followed after them on his own bike radioing Batgirl and Catwoman on what they were doing.

"So who won?" Catwoman asked.

"Tie for the moment." Nightwing replied. "We only did it to see if they could survive the streets. I couldn't beat your little cat, and Huntress couldn't beat the other one. Nightwing smiled as he remembered the way the two women had fought. "Though I think Huntress and her buddy are going to want a rematch."

"And what about you?" Catwoman purred into the mike.

Rules or non rules like we were doing?"

"Non rules of course." Catwoman said, surprised that he had to ask.

"Then I could be interested." Nightwing admitted to the woman on the other end, as he headed for where a warehouse was the supposed meeting place to someone who had his little brother. And if there were so much as a hair out of place, then there would be hell to pay. He promised himself his eyes narrowing, as he roared down the road.


	21. Ch 21

Don't own any of this so don't sue. Joss owns Buffy like you should already know and Batman and respective characters are owned by D.C comics.

On with the Tale!

Dawn was back in the middle of the room talking to the various people, though there was still a few people on the edges that refused to socialize with the group she was forming. She had noticed one of the half-breeds tossing a knife from hand to hand, and had recognized it as a descendant of the Miquot clan. The knife and the spikes that stuck out of his head like a Mohawk were such a give away. Buffy had fought them a time or two on the hellmouth, and they had actually gotten into an all out fight in Harlem New York with the idiots. The police had thought it was a bunch of punks vs. another rival gang. Amazing what people were willing to ignore sometimes. They hadn't lost any lives in the fight fortunately, but a lot of slayers had been benched after it had happened. On the good side though, the demons and vamps had lost some major ground when it came to Harlem.

"He's not someone to take lightly." Tim said, from beside her.

"How so?" She asked, surprised that he could tell that from here. Every time she thought she had figured Tim out he would pull out another wild card that didn't fit with what she thought that she knew about him. Of course he would then withdraw the wild card and return to acting like she thought he should, so it was confusing trying to figure out which was the real Tim Drake.

"See the way he handles that knife of his? The way it is being twirled? Sure it's showing off a bit, but it also allows his to throw it at a moments notice. Then there's the fact that he's standing kind of in a corner where he can all of the obvious ins and outs of the place. He's also standing in spot where no one can get at him as well though."

"And you know all this because?" Dawn hoped this might help her figure things out.

"Hey you survive No Man's Land you pick up a few things." He said grimly, as he recalled some of the things that he had done. Several of the other kids nodded in agreement, having seen other survivors pull the same trick before. There was actually a handful of them that were survivors, and were more than ready to fight again for their lives if need be.

"Yeah, Drake was kind of the poster kid for getting the city back open." One kid said. "His old man made a real big noise about him being here."

"And here I thought you were just some cute looking brainy type." Dawn teased him. "Maybe there's more to you than is obvious." She remembered her own NML from Sunneydale.

"Maybe." Tim said shrugging. He hadn't mentioned the fact that the guy had something on his head, or the fact that he watched the guy pulled the blade out of his arm, and not the jacket sleeve he was wearing. He had pieced together from the various electronics a small two-way radio, but he would need to make sure no one was watching him use it, and right now he was currently the center of attention with Dawn sitting beside him.

He looked around for an excuse to get away to try the radio he had cobbled together; Dawn looked at him and grinned. "You really hate these crowds don't you?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Is it that obvious?"

"Not as obvious as the do-hickey you got there." She whispered, she was toying with the beads in her hair unconsciously it seemed. One of the beads actually still had a bit of dry blood on it.

"How did you?"

"Please." She drawled quietly. "I know that you've been itching for a way to get out of here as badly as I have. That gizmo is the only thing you've come up with though so far though."

"Not exactly a whole lot of tools around to work with." Tim said. "If I had known that I was getting into this, I would have brought a miniaturized blow torch and a other tools that would have been useful." Tim knew he had described some of the things he actually did have on him, but he couldn't use anything other than the tracker that was there. He had tried to radio Oracle, but his com was for some reason down All of his hidden bat styled toys that were electronic weren't working except the ones with the most basic of functions, and he had thought that they could withstand sustained EMP shots. (Electro Magnetic Pulse)

"Look, I'm gonna go to the restroom. Be nice to the others." She said, Tim nodded his eyes looking like they were a million miles away. Sighing Dawn grinned, what was it Buffy and Faith had said was the best way to get a guy's attention? Oh yeah! She smirked, as she kissed him on the lips for a moment, before releasing him. Tim was looking at her in wide-eyed shock. "Play nice." She repeated with a sultry grin, before she walked off.

Tim swallowed, as he watched her walk off. "That Drake, is what happens when you don't pay attention to a girl." A guy said, Tim looked in confusion at the guy. He smirked at the dazed Tim. "It's a classic tactic for the gals to do to us Drake. Something distracts us, so they pull a hit and run. Leaving us totally confused. You know what I mean?" He asked the other guys around him. Tim nodded along with the others, and grinned ruefully. How many times had that happened to him with other dates? Whether it had been Spoiler or Arrowete, he always had that happen to him. It usually happened a few weeks before they broke up with him. Or as a parting shot, so they could leave a distracted Boy Wonder on the roof.

"You keep that chika hombre." Another boy added with admiration. "She one to stand with."

Tim nodded again, as he considered everything that had happened. He needed to either get out, or get a message out to the others. But with the dampeners in the area, there was little he could do in this room. He needed to get out. The only question would be would Dawn hate him if he ran off without her? Of course the way she acted, she might be mad that she didn't get to save everyone else as well. The door had an energy source though, and if he could tap into it, he should theoretically be enough to boost whatever signal he could send, even if it was a few seconds burst that would allow Oracle to track him back from that.

"So is there any way to get out of this room?" Tim asked, "who knows, Dawn and I might like a moment or two alone?" He hoped no one but these guys were actually listening, or he was going to have to do some really quick explaining to Dawn.

At this some of the boys grinned. "Wished there was, but unless you can get out of here I'm afraid not."

"Does anybody get out of here before their families pay up?"

"Only if you're a trouble maker, then they take you talk to one of the head honchos."

"Who is he?"

"No one knows that wants to talk about it, but he scares the crap out of most people and they won't talk about whatever it is that they see."

"I see." Tim said, his eyes narrowing. '_What was it that could scare some of these kids? Kids whose families dealt with lowlifes like the Riddler and Poison Ivey?' _

"And these guards they're freaky strong man. I think they're a bunch of stinking metas or some other crap like that." Another boy added. "I saw one actually bend the gun he was holding. I mean its bad enough when you got to worry about the Bat on the outside, now we got to worry about metas taking us prisoner. When are they just going to take all of the freaks and costumes off the streets you know?"

Tim kept his mouth shut at this. Dawn had told him to play nice so he would, even if he disagreed with the viewpoints. Dawn soon came back saving him from having to say anything, she was also rolling her eyes. "Let me guess." Tim said, "you got into another fight with my friend?"

"Now why would you think that?" Dawn drawled mischievously.

"The combination of annoyance and smugness you got going there." Another kid answered.

Tim smiled weakly at her. "You realize, they'll probably going to want to have a talk with you if you keep fighting right?"

"Is that supposed to worry me?" She asked.

"Well, according to the others, whoever they see leaves an impression. And I don't want you to get hurt." He added blushing.

"Tell you what, I'll insist that you come with, all right?"

"Ok, I just hope we don't regret this if it happens." Tim looked unconvinced that that would work, but he knew that he didn't have a lot of say in it either.

"So, what do we talk about now? Cause I'm all out of good gossip to talk about after a few hours."

"We could always try and convince the guards to lets us out again."

"Nah, I really hate it when someone tries and backhands me." Dawn said.

"Summers!" A guard said coming up to her.

"And speaking of our favorite people." She added dryly. "Though why it had to be snot for brains I'll never know."

"The boss wants to talk to you kid." The guard growled.

"And why would that be?" The guard glared at her; on one hand the guards were impressed by her lack of fear, on the other it made intimidating the others a lot harder for them.

"Probably the fact that you got into another scuffle in the restrooms." Shrugging Dawn got up Tim followed after her, till the guard waved a gun at him. "Sorry whiz kid, but the boss don't want to talk to you, just your girl. Don't worry though ain't a thing gonna physically go wrong with your girl."

Tim growled angrily, as he got between the men and Dawn. "Tim, you realize that you won't win right?" Dawn asked worriedly from behind him.

"Yeah, but since your behind me trying to convince me to be the smart person I normally am you can lift my radio out from behind my jacket. Just find a steel beam to place it on, then all you'll have to do is turn it on." He muttered to her.

"Sounds simple enough." She whispered back, as she took the odd radio device, and slipped it into her own pocket. "You realize your going to get into trouble for this right?"

"Hey for a pretty girl, and a chance for getting out what's not worth the risk?"

The brunette blushed at this. "Stop channeling Spike and Angel already will you?" She whispered back. "Its getting hard to resist that kind of charm, besides I like you, not hero you. And part of that means a boy that is whole, as in two hands feet."

"And a heart beat?"

"Well that would be a nice thing to have."

"Someone's watched Tarzan one time to many." Someone muttered, causing the surrounding kids to give weak grins.

"Fine." Tim said, as he felt her give him one more hug, before he backed off, letting the guards take her. He watched darkly, as they left and let his mind ponder what the others had said about the people involved in this. Sure they hadn't said names, but they had described personalities traits, and part of his training was that he had to analyze the psychological traits of a number of criminals. All he had to do was think which person this best represented although he should probably deal with figuring who Dawn was going to see. The Scarecrow was at the top of that particular list, along with a few telepaths that he knew of who had similar profiles. The telepaths might have been higher on the list except for one thing this was Gotham, so the Scarecrow got the number one spot as a suspect. And he had just let someone he actually liked go into a room that possibly held that crazy. What was he thinking? She wasn't in the hero business, she didn't have any kind of defense against that kind of attack. At least as Robin he had the mental training to fight those sorts of things off. But no, he had to go and be heartless and let them take Dawn.

"Take it easy man." One guy said. "It ain't gonna help her if your to messed up to help her when she gets back. She might need ya. So get your head screwed on straight." Tim nodded reluctantly, as he sat down to wait for his date to come back. He talked occasionally to the kids here and there, he also made sure to ignore the rich snobs that had been grinning like Cheshire cats when Dawn had been taken away.

* * *

Dawn jerked her arm free of the half-breed's grip, and continued walking after the other one. She grinned as she heard the guy grumble about independent American girls, in what sounded like a German accent. She thought about responding to the guy that looked like a cross between road kill, and a person that had the tar beat out of them. She waited patiently, as they escorted her to whatever wonderful little playhouse of torture that they had planned for her. She wondered if the big bad here would just want to spell her, or if there was going to be something else, cause she didn't have any of the super healing that a ball of green energy really ought to have when you considered the fact it was her blood that opened the portals. Unfortunately, the monks had decided not to add that little feature into her when they made her. They probably figured that if she had been cut open, she was dead already or would be soon. Stupid monks.

She looked around for some kind of I beam or something to leave the thingamabob that Tim had pieced together. The pleasure of having a former construction worker and current architecture major living with you is that you knew al of the fancy terms. So far there wasn't anything that looked right though. She could always try the whole hitting someone with her beads as well though, that should get Buffy to get a sense where she was.

Dawn found herself entering the big room that was like a chamber. She looked around, and found that it was your typical bad guy base. Huge theatrical chair for the head big bad to sit on, while the guy who did all the dirty work and was usually the one who came up with the really devious plans had to deal with a small cramped office. "Ah, welcome my dear." A voice said, as a figure stepped out of the shadows. Dawn looked at the person in surprise, but didn't say anything. Even she had heard of this person, and knew some of what they could do. _'Crap.'_ She thought, as they stepped into the light.

* * *

"To cliff hang or not to cliff hang, that is the question." Ponders a moment. "Hang!" 


	22. Ch 22

Don't own any of this so don't sue. Joss owns Buffy like you should already know and Batman and respective characters are owned by D.C comics.

On with the Tale!

* * *

The reason both names are shown is that while Batman wants them to consider themselves by the names they are more comfortable with their birth names.

Buffy/Slayer pointed to a man that was patrolling the darkened alley below them. "You sure?" Huntress asked, as she looked at the figure below them.

"Besides his obvious lack of fashion sense, he's also setting off my slaydar. He's definitely making me go all tingly."

"Slaydar?"

"Monster detector." She explained tapping the side of her head. "Though mines not as strong as some slayers for some reason, that we've never been able to figure out. And it really doesn't work great on half demons. But I've gotten it to where I can now sense vamps."

"So big guy what do you think?" Faith/Shadow asked the Batman. "Do you want to collect him or dust him?"

Batman tapped the side of his cowl, as he examined the being below them. "Keep to night vision." He ordered, as his eye slits changed from there regular white, to red to green. "Infrared doesn't pick them up." The other vigilantes nodded, as they set their masks for the correct settings, disabling the infrared functions for the time being.

"We could have told you that Bat." Faith/Shadow said smugly. "He's got no body heat cause he's a walking dead man."

"Literally in this case." Nightwing said with a chuckle

"And my partner could tell you all about their lack of body heat can't ya B." Smirking, as her friends cheeks colored slightly.

"Lets go." Batman ordered, jumping from the building.

The two demon hunters watched in fascination, as the Batman jumped down. The hero's cape flared up behind him into a kind of hang glider. "Neat." the dark haired girl said. "How does he keep the cape open like that Hotwings?"

"Lots of practice, and specially designed fabrics." Nightwing responded, as he grabbed Shadow/Faith in his arms and began his own decent into the alley. He bounced silently between the two buildings that made up the alley. He released the woman in his arms, while he back flipped into a landing, the female demon hunter landed in a crouch. The vigilante did a quick check, to make sure that Batman was all right, before he retreated back into the shadows to take a quick survey of the inside of the warehouse.

Shadow/Faith blinked in surprise, as she got back to her feet where Hotwings had dumped her. Hotwings was now MIA, and the Batman had the vamp or hybrid kissing pavement with his foot, holding its head down. "Damn, I didn't know it was possible to take a vamp down that fast." The woman said in admiration.

Batman didn't respond to the praise, as he cuffed the vampire with a heavy looking pair of handcuffs. "Don't bother trying to break those, they're made of titanium." He growled, as he hauled the vampire up into a sitting position. "Now, where is the entrance?"

"Entrance to what?" The vamp stuttered out.

"To where all the other fang faces like you are, dust for brains." The blonde said, as she appeared in the alley, alongside her teammate and their current ally.

"And you are?" The vampire asked arrogantly.

"Who us? Why we're the Chosen Two." Shadow/Faith said, smiling darkly at the vampire,which had been on the verge of dismissing them as non-threats.

"As in the ones that shut down the Hellmouth?" The vampire asked nervously. The two girls nodded, as the vamp lost what little color he had. "But you're supposed to be on the other side of the world." He stuttered, No one said anything about you being on this side of the Atlantic."

"What can I say, I like being able to understand the people that I talk to. The Slayer/Buffy said impishly. "And since I only took Spanish and French in school instead of Italian, it makes that kind of a hard goal."

"And me, well lets just say that I now someone with connections that got me here so fast." Shadow/Faith said shrugging. "Although she really needs to learn how to not make the trip so breezy. Although I notice the language barrier didn't exactly slow you down in finding a new boy toy."

"Later." The other girl said, as she turned back to the vampire. "Where are the hostages dust bag?"

"What hostages Slayer?"

The Slayer sighed in annoyance. "Is there a church near here?" She asked, turning to the head honcho. Batman nodded, after thinking for a moment. "Does it have a one of those really big crosses in the sanctuary for everyone to go ga ga over?" Another short curt nod was all that she was given. "Good, that will probably be the best place to do a bit of Q's and A's."

"Why's that?"

"Simple Hotwings." Shadow/Faith said, as the vigilante dropped back from wherever he had been hiding in the shadows. "Fangs for brains, like this guy really don't like crosses. And the ones that have people using them for religious crap, seem to super charge them even more than a typical cross would. Or it might have something to do with the size of the thing to." She added as an afterthought.

"What she's trying to say in her own unique fashion is that they make em feel really sick."

"Very well." Batman said. "Huntress transport him to the nearest church."

"Why me?" The dark haired vigilante asked in surprise.

"Cause you got crosses sewn into your skintight outfit." Shadow/Faith explained slightly annoyed at the other woman. "They might slow him down on the off chance that he actually manages to get free."

"Not easy looking into the mirror is it?" Slayer/Buffy asked.

"Shut it." Shadow/Faith returned. "Or I start comparing you to Hotwings."

The blonde tossed her companion a mock salute. "Now you know how I felt during some of are early adventures."

Batman ignored the joking pair, and focused on the items that had been in the vampire's pockets, while Huntress and Nightwing tied the vampire in question up securely. The jokes and such he recognized as emotional armor, the people were uncomfortably close to their charge. The fact that one moment they were joking with a slight edge, the next moment they were deadly serious showed that the armor was slipping, and soon they wouldn't even bother with pretending to be okay. Nightwing was much the same; he was only better at it because of his extensive training. He was just glad that they had had time to rest, giving them time to gather some control. The way the emotions they were using were changing though, seemed to add to the nervousness that the vampire had. Evidently this was not the first time that the girls had acted like this, and might mean something was wrong.

Huntress scowled at the Demon Hunters, as if their methods had some major fault to them. "Hey Huntress." The vigilante turned to look at the blonde. "Vamps have enhanced healing." She said, as if giving some vital piece of information.

"I'm very well aware of that." Huntress said brusquely at the woman.

"Just saying, that if he were to say, slam into a wall or two on the way there I could probably be convinced rather easily that you were just softening them up for some questioning, without that little fact getting in the way. Just try to avoid the trees and rosebushes." She added, as Huntress nodded with a slightly feral grin, as she fired her D-cell.

"You shouldn't encourage her." Batman told her.

The girl nodded. "True, but what are the chances that she'll dust him before we get to question him?"

Batman turned toward a shadow. "I blame this attitude completely on you."

"Oh come on, she wouldn't have been trained by me if she didn't play with her prey just a little bit." Catwoman replied silkily, as she walked out of the shadows.

"Hey! I don't play with vamps."

Shadow/Faith snorted at this defense. "Right," she drawled out completely unconvinced. "So you're saying that you never slammed a vamp into their own headstone? Or waited till someone was done boasting about their invulnerability, before shooting them with an explosive? Or how about skewering someone with their own weapon?" Both girls shivered uncomfortably at the last bit, as it drug up an old memory.

"Hey, the whole knife thing was revenge nothing more and you know that."

"That's my girl Catwoman said proudly." Cutting the Slayer off.

The Slayer went stiff, as she turned to face the professional thief turned part time thief and vigilante. "I'm not your girl Catwoman." She said darkly. "Old student, yes but that is all. I am nothing else to you. And there is little that I actually remember fondly of our time together."

"Please, when I was teaching you it was the only time that your eyes even had any life in them. The training I was giving you then is probably one of the reasons that your even alive."

"You think you and your training are the reason that I'm alive?"

"If you want to keep your head attached I'd stop with what ya said. But hey, if you want to waste one of your nine lives I'm five by five with that to." The other girl said shrugging, as she leaned against one of the walls as the other two women faced off. "By the way, great idea in letting them get together in one of those civilized conversations." She added sarcastically to Batman.

"Deal with this mess of yours." Batman told Catwoman, as he stalked past them, then fired his own line into the air.

"And I thought that wolf-boy didn't talk a lot." Shadow/Faith said, as she watched the figure disappear into the air. She shook her head, as she lost sight of him. "The big guy's brooding, combined with the wolf boy's lack of talking. That is definitely something to get used to. Is he always that social, or are we just lucky?"

"No, usually you have to really work to get him to open up." Nightwing explained, concerned for his mentor/father/sensei/partner. "Come on, lets leave these two to deal with their stuff. We can always have bets on what kind of condition that they'll be in when they catch up with us."

"You're just a real inspiration giver ain't ya?" Shadow/Faith asked, as she was scooped up. "I got my money on my girl." She said, as was carried off into the night.

"If I find out they had this planned out before hand, I am going to hurt someone." Slayer/Buffy swore, as she looked into the air. She was doing her best to ignore the woman she had been left with.

"When the Bat is concerned, you can never be sure." Catwoman answered shrugging. "He has so many plans within plans, that it sometimes requires you to take a step back just so you can analyze everything that he has going on. Even then, you might not understand all of it. So there's no reason to take this personally. Besides," she said, tossing a smirk at the shorter girl. "I figure you'll talk when you're ready, not when he wants you to be ready. You don't like to open up unless it's really necessary, even then it a fight to get you to talk."

"Glad that you remembered all of that about me." The blonde said sarcastically.

'Great, she was using her sarcasm again. Never a good thing, when you wanted to get her to open up.' Catwoman thought, as she tossed a small bundle at her old student. Maybe she could make some of what she had done up to her. "You remember how to use that stuff?"

The blonde Slayer caught the bundle, despite her back being turned. She looked at the bundle in surprise; it was one of Catwoman's tool belts. The only difference with this one though, was that it had a spot for the whip to be coiled at her side instead of coiling the long weapon around her waist. "Yeah, I remember. I had the best teacher, when it came to learning how to use this stuff."

Catwoman nodded smugly. "That you did, though you might want see if you can replace, or merge it with one of the Bat's belts. They have a lot more toys on them." The Slayer nodded, as she slipped the belt on under her jacket. Catwoman smiled at the figure that stood before her, she only wished she could claim to forming the young woman that she was now. "Despite the way you feel about me, I am extremely proud of you."

This seemed to catch the blonde by surprise, as she turned around. "Why?" She asked suspiciously.

"You got out of the business. Well you got enough." She added, as she remembered that she had told the others that she had stayed in practice to pay bills, and someone named Spike.

"Yeah I got out enough to die." The girl said, as she finished adjusting the belt. She turned to the other woman. "In a way, you kept me alive, whether I like to admit it or not. For that I kind of owe you. But you also used me because of that. A part of me has thought more than once trying to find you and kicking your butt all over the place."

"If you're expecting an apology, then you are going to be waiting in this alley for a long time kiddo."

"I know." The girl said, as she finally turned to face the well-known thief. The girl actually seemed to be a part of the night; Catwoman noted, as the girl unconsciously was shifting in and out of the shadows. Batman and his merry band did that as well though only a couple of them did it unconsciously. "I just really hate being used like that. Over the years, my tolerance for people playing control games has gotten a hell of a lot less. I also hate it when this sort of thing comes and bites me in the butt."

"Its something you're going to have to get used to kid."

The blonde gave a humorless laugh at her old teacher and manipulator. "Trust me, you're not the worst thing to happen to me because of something that happened in my past."

"I'm not sure whether or not I should be insulted or not."

"Yeah, well I've had about as much heart to heart as I can stand for now. We can tell your boss that we've come to a kind of understanding for now, but my threats still count. "Now we got a job to do."

"Fair enough." Catwoman replied. "Are you capable of flying through the air?"

"We didn't cover that last time, and I haven't exactly been around a whole lot of tall buildings to do any kind of self-study. So, either you can carry me, or I can run the rooftops."

"Then lets go." Catwoman said, as she flipped into the air onto a nearby fire escape. She then began jumping from landing to landing. Smiling grimly, Slayer followed after her. The blonde sometimes took two landings at a time, as her enhanced strength gave her slightly more jumping ability. "Oh, you might want to be careful around Batman. He might not like the idea of you having the tools of the trade on you. He might even start breathing down your neck to make sure you stay on the straight and narrow in his town."

"Geeze, I've only stopped the world from ending a few dozen times, you'd think that would get me some slack, or at the very least the benefit of the doubt."

"Not from the Bat." Catwoman shot back, as they finally made it to the roof. The two then ran across the rooftops, Catwoman leading Slayer through the night. The older of the two could almost sense Batman's eyes following them. Evidently he hadn't trusted Slayer not to try something stupid. She also felt the sense of his eyes leave her, and she knew that he was taking the easier route to the church. The two black-garbed figures reached the building ledge and leaped. Catwoman brought out her whip, and swung upwards while Slayer/Buffy managed to jump out, and grab the edge of a window ledge. The blonde then hauled herself up, and forced the window open. After the window was open, she dropped silently to floor. Catwoman followed after, as the woman slipped into the sanctuary.

When they entered, they saw the vampire seated near the cross that stood out like a beacon. Shadow/Faith, and Huntress were in the back bottling several vials of holy water, while Batman stood in the shadows talking with Nightwing. Slayer/Buffy nodded, as Willow /Wicca made her presence known in the back of her head.

"So has dust for brains decided to start yakking yet?"

"We thought that letting him stew for a few moments was better than rushing it."

"Okay. Quick question for you boss guy, before we start all of this. Cause I really don't want to get into an argument with you over it during the questioning. Cause then he'll just play us off each other. And that is just really annoying at times." Batman nodded at her to continue. "If we hurt him to get info, will you make us stop?"

Batman cocked an eyebrow at this. Most metas, were arrogant enough to put the words 'try' into it. By phrasing it the way that she had, she had managed to at least surpass several metas that he already knew when it came to critical thinking. "Is he human?"

"No, his humanity's gone. He may have all of the memories of whoever he was before, but he is not the same person. In my time as some fancy shmancy mystical chosen warrior, I've only met two vamps with their humanity actually in tact. And they had to get it in odd ways." She jerked her thumb at the sickly looking vampire. "He's nothing more than an animal that feeds on humans. There's no telling how many people that he may have killed. Judging from how healthy he seems, despite being under a freaking cross he's fed recently. Probably fed well to."

"He's been killing in my town?" Batman asked, suddenly in the vampires face gritting his teeth in fury, as he gave the night creature a death glare. The vampire just shrank away in fear from the dangerous look he was now under.

The vampire swallowed nervously. "Not all of the people drained were done by me." It defended fearfully. "There's the local vampire motor biker club, they've drained a ton of bikers that have wanted to join them. Turned a few of the guys to, from I understand."

"You mean to tell me, that there's a bunch of vamps playing Biker Boyz?" Faith/Shadow asked in amusement.

"Yes," the vamp said, "then there's the demon club. Call themselves the Night Lords."

"While this is good information, your attempts to distract me from what I really want to know is not going to work." Batman informed the vampire, raising the demon closer to the nearby cross.

"Now. Where are the entrances to where the hostages are?"

"And we were worried he was going to freak when we started questioning him?" Shadow/Faith asked, impressed at how the Batman had the vamp on the verge of shitting itself.

"I don't know." The vampire whined. "All I have to do is guard that area, then head to the nest, if you try and go someplace else though you get staked. The warehouse isn't even the base of operations."

"Quite. I want to remember how he does this." Slayer/Buffy told her friend, a predatory gleam few living beings had ever seen in her eyes. "Can you imagine how helpful being able to do that would be?"

"Maybe if you ask us real nicely, we'll come and give you a seminar. Something like, how to intimidate the bad guy. Course, you should see him do it from the shadows while it's raining. That's when he goes from scary to terrifying, and when he wants to, he can do horrifying." Nightwing whispered, so that the questioning could continue, but he could talk with the less all business like one.

"Careful Hotwings, I might just take you up on that offer. Though our witch is more interested in all the toys that you guys use." The dark haired girl whispered back.

Nightwing chuckled at this. "Sitting in your head while we talk are they?" He asked, as he idly brushed a bit of his hair back, giving him the time to adjust the psi blocker he wore.

"Eh, you now how the mind folks are always wanting to know everything they can."

"You have no idea."

"Would you two take the whole flirtatious dealing crap outside, so that he can do his job? I want to find the Key, so that I can go back to my vacation time, and you can go back to saving the streets and the world from time to time, with all those show off friends you got."

Nightwing gave a sheepish grin, as he realized he had been overheard. Batman wouldn't be mad at him for what he was doing, but he would be annoyed that the blond had overheard him. If for no other reason, than because she was trained partially by Catwoman. He refocused on the vampire, who was quickly running through the little patience that Batman had right now. If they hadn't gone and taken Tim they might have found things a bit easier, but Batman was not going to lose another Robin if he could help it.

"C'mon man, you now I can't tell anyone these sort of things. If I did, then I would be dust." The vampire pleaded to the lead vigilante. "Besides, were cousins of a sort. You know? Both of us being creatures of the night and stuff." Slayer and Shadow snickered at the attempt to soften the Batman up. "Not that you drink blood or anything of course." The vampire said hurriedly, as if sensing he had made a mistake.

Scowling at the reference to their similarities, Batman took a vial of holy water from Huntress and splashed it across the vampires face. He noted the acidic effect that the vampire had to the water. If this had been his first experience with vampires, and the weapons used to fight them, he would have pocketed the rest in his belt to examine for any unknown compounds in the water. This was one of the reasons that he really hated magic. When perfectly normal water, could act like acid all because a priest had blessed it. He knew it was normal, because he had run chemical analysis on other bottles and come up with nothing. "Where are they?" He growled, as he brought the vampires back against the cross. He watched, as he began burning from either side.

"You guys will just stake me anyways. The guy that told him about us is scary man. He'll do something crazy, like cause all sorts of problems for me, or if it's the boss he might cut me in half or he might." He never finished with the threats to his life, as he caught on fire. Batman looked at Slayer questioning, about what had just happened.

"Too much holy water, he must have gotten it inside of him." Slayer told him, as the vampire finally turned into smoking ash. "And I was hoping to get a bit more info before he died. Maybe if he sang a real good song, I'd have given him a get out of town card." She mused.

"You've seen this effect before?" Batman asked, breaking her out of her musings.

"Yeah, it's a great way to take out a vamp when it thinks its won." She said shrugging. "Especially when he's a pill popper."

Batman nodded. "A well thought out strategy." He complimented her. Nightwing and Catwoman stared in shock at this. Batman had just complimented an intruder in his town, on her being able to outthink an opponent.

"Eh I had to do something when my powers were gone. To bad the vamp didn't tell us anything."

Batman nodded, this girl had been through the same test that Alfred's Slayer had been then, and she had survived. "He provided plenty of information for us to begin the next part of our search though." Batman explained.

"Really? And what was that? All I heard was a whole lot of whining."

"Simple, he mentioned that his boss would cut him in half. A favorite finishing move of Two-Face. We find him, we find the children."

"Sounds simple enough in theory." Batman's eyes narrowed, as the girl started talking. While it was Slayer's voice, it was also not her speech patterns or body language, that were answering him. While Slayer talked in a sarcastic mode and moved with the ease of a fighter. The person using her was a softer talking person, and moved like a person that was a long-range fighter. "But to find one crazy in a town full of crazy like people, we're going to oh I don't know need another."

"Wicca, I allow you to work in my town. I do not allow you to come into Slayer's head and listen in on a conversation whenever you feel, and I do not appreciate you trying to control people like that just to get your point across."

"Sorry about that." Slayer/Buffy said, as she staggered a moment later. "Every now and then that happens on accident, when she tries to overextend herself or she gets talking real fast. Knight G-man and I somehow start channeling her."

"Yeah, its real annoying when you guys start channeling her." Shadow/Faith said.

"I don't like mind control." Batman stated leaving it at that.

"Is there anything you do like?" Shadow/Faith asked as she watched the Batman.

Batman ignored her, and went for his comm. "What is it?"

"I am sure that you merely forgot about it, but you do have a dinner to go to tonight. Several of the various powers will be there tonight, and a few new ones as well." Alfred informed his employer, knowing how much he disliked the social gatherings of Gotham's elite.

"I still have 1 hour and 35 minutes before I can be fashionably late, without appearing to be rude." Batman informed the butler.

"I see." Alfred replied, a hint of disapproval in his voice. "It seems that the young man that you met in the sewers earlier is a last minute addition to the guest list."

"He's going to be there?" Batman asked, intrigued at getting to know the other members of the demon hunters.

"Yes sir."

"Very well, I shall take a chance and show up earlier than usual. After I have dealt with this mess though."

"Really sir, its just a dinner, not some life threatening objective."

'You didn't see this person throw Croc into a wall then over the edge of a bridge either.' Batman thought, as he terminated the connection. "Patrol the city, see if there is any knew information." He said turning toward his people. "As for you, I believe that he mentioned several places for you to start looking."

"So we're gonna rough the demon population up, while your going to be roughing the regulars up?"

"Correct." Batman said, as he lead them out of the church. You all have reputations that can be used best in each of our areas. I will be looking for information in other areas as well."

"Gotchya." The two girls headed for below the streets, they obviously had memorized parts of the layout if they would so easily take that method of travel.

After the two had disappeared and Huntress had headed for her usual area, he turned toward Nightwing and Catwoman. "Be careful." He warned them. "There is still much we don't know about them." The other two nodded, as Batman headed for the batmobile.

"So you got a preference on where to start, or do you just wan to swing around looking for trouble?"

"Looking for trouble might be good. Besides I need some regular criminals to take of right now."

"Sounds good to me."


	23. Ch 23

Don't own any of the stuff here peoples cause my bank statement is still about the same. Buffy belongs to Joss Gasp I just know your shocked about that and Batman and related charctersbelongs to D.C and that's the end of this part.

Its okay if you get a bit lost in this chap its just a lot of jumping between Angel and Batman.

* * *

Angel glowered, as he loosened the top button on his shirt, as he entered the building. He couldn't believe the people here. While their kids were missing, they were wining and dining, and just expected for people to find their kids. And to make it more annoying, since he was here as a representative for Wolfram & Hart, he actually had to attend this stupid thing. He could think of a lot better things to do than sipping wine and eating food that he didn't even need. He could be out there finding Dawn and the other kids, preferably before Buffy blew into town. _'Were the Powers trying to screw his life up? All right that was a stupid question.'_ He admitted to himself. And what's more, he was still hurting a bit from where he had been slammed into the sewer walls a few times, when he was searching for someone to get info from. The demon that he had met, had seemed to be more interested in trying to take his head off than he had anything else though. So, it had actually hurt him pretty badly. It didn't help his mood or pride, that he had had to launch him over a bridge just to survive a fight. He still didn't know what kind of demon it was either, he would ask the others if they had ever heard or seen anything like that overgrown lizard. _'Seeing the Batman had been kind of a neat bonus though.'_ He reflected, as he thought of the mysterious cloaked man he had seen earlier. 

'_Spike and Illyria would soon be in town though, probably would get in while he was stuck in this snobbish place.'_ He thought bitterly, as he handed his overcoat to some person or other. The one thought in his mind, as he snagged a drink was how bad this might be.

20 minutes later the master vampire was seething inside. This was almost as bad as any of the tortures that he had done as Angelus. He had to listen to all of these rich idiots yammer on and on about the most mundane things. In ways, it was worse than that time that Cordy had made him come to that play of hers. The pain he had over that fight was now a cursed blessing, since he could concentrate on that, instead of the people. And if all that wasn't bad enough, he actually had to smile at these people while he listened to them. He couldn't just ignore them. _'No that might actually offend someone.'_

On a good side though, more and more people seemed to be paying attention to their survival instincts, and leaving him alone. This was a mixed blessing though, since he had to deal with the bootlickers who were asking questions for their bosses or lawyers of other companies, who were afraid of the competition that W&H might give them. His idiot of a guide wasn't being much help, since he kept trying to get Angel to meet some of the town players that stayed beneath the radar. Unlike other people like Enigma, or Harvey Dent, or even the Penguin. Why did so many of the supposed villains and heroes insist on some of the crazy names that they had? Even demons and vampire had more self-respect than that. Sure the Slayer name was well known, but that was almost like her species as it was her title. A more common thought to it, now that there were hundreds of the girls now instead of just one.

Then there were the people here who were for the most part innocents. His guide was currently sneering, at what he assumed was one of these innocents. "Now there's something you don't see every day." The man said sarcastically.

"And what's that?"

"A sober Bruce Wayne, actually showing up on time to a social function that he's not the star of."

"Let me guess, I have to talk to him." Angel said with distaste. He really didn't want to talk to someone that could actually irritate a W&H lackey.

"Knowing him, he'll introduce himself. Just don't expect very much as far as intelligent conversation." The ensouled vampire was warned. "When it comes to actually talking business, one would be better off talking with Luscious Fox who handles all of the actual business." The man pointed to a portly dark skinned man, which was currently talking with Wayne.

"Understood." Angel said, as he took a sip from his drink. He sighed, as he looked at the glass in his hands. _'What he wouldn't do for a good Irish brewed drink sometimes.'_

"I'll be back, I have to talk to some of the people that are to scared to come and talk to you. It wouldn't hurt you to be friendly you know? Maybe next time you can bring that Eve girl on your arm." He suggested hopefully. "She has the social skills that you lack. And she's not bad looking either."

"Her contract was suspended with all of its benefits."

"Really? I hadn't heard. And she was supposed to be such a rising star."

"So was Lilah Morgan." Angel told him, "but she got the ax to. Eve double crossed me and the Senior Partners."

"Right, like I said people to talk to." The aide said, as he scurried away with that tidbit of information.

Angel nodded, as he turned back to survey the room. He also understood the fast exit, as Wayne came up to him. He quickly forced a smile on his face. The playboy Wayne heir had been gradually making his way toward Angel and the bar. Angel considered getting up and moving on before he was forced to interact with the guy. He almost did it, but then something made him change his mind.

He studied the guy trying to figure out what it was that was off. He really didn't want to tangle with a possessor demon, or evil spirit of some sort right now. The vampire watched intently, as the guy made his way over to the bar when it hit him. While his body language was that of any hundred other people, his eyes were those of a hunter and fighter, looking for both strength and weakness. Occasionally the eyes would shutter though, and he would look into the eyes of a man that was just enjoying a party. He didn't think there were that many people that could shield their emotion that well. Heck he had only heard of people that could do it, and he had spent time in monasteries all over the world. This man, this Wayne, he was more dangerous than some of the demons that he had faced. He didn't care what his W&H man said, and if the guy didn't realize it, then he was either extremely stupid or this guy was really good at what it was that he did, and was distracted by something tonight. A part of him looked forward to talking with the guy, since it would be something that W&H didn't even know about.

"Ah, Mr. Angel isn't it?" Wayne asked cheerfully, as he sidled up next to Angel in front of the bar. Angel nodded and eyed him in confusion. He was usually able to pick out fighters, but this guys voice didn't hold the power he was expecting. Then again, Buffy with her valley girl accent didn't exactly instill fear in you either. "A pleasure to meet you." The man said.

"If you think so." Angel replied back, trying to understand the mixed signals that he was getting. He tried getting the guy's scent, and was nearly overwhelmed with his cologne. It was like he trying to drown out his own scent with this expensive crap that he was wearing.

"So what brings you to Gotham?"

"Investigating the kidnappings, and to see if putting a branch office here would be a good use of resources."

"And you're a detective?" Wayne asked curious ignoring the concept of business between them.

"Former P.I." Angel explained. "Had a fair to decent bit of business." He wondered what the hotel looked like right now. Jasmine had nearly cleaned him out with all the restorations that she had done to it. If it hadn't been for donations, he would have been in trouble. Then there was the fact that their fight had started in there as well. He really ought to check up on it one f these days.

* * *

Bruce Wayne studied the CEO of a branch of a questionable law firm. He had heard of the law firm before. A Firm, which usually ended up in defending some of society's worst beings. As both Bruce Wayne, and Batman he had known a number of law firms that he didn't like. Wolfram and Hart were some of the worst though. They defended the terrorists, rapists, murders, muggers, and cultists that always managed to squeak clean somehow. Sometimes they managed to reduce a sentence, or actually managed getting their clients off on technicalities that most people wouldn't have even thought of. He also knew that for the moment, that they had steered cleared of the more noticeable dregs of society like Joker or Riddler. They did some small dealings with Penguin, but not many. Luthor sometimes had dealings with them as well. In fact, Luthor was known to hire some of the same people that the firm went for. That was a large mental mark against the man. 

If he was truly with Slayer, then he might need to question what it was that the Slayer was really in his town for. It could be her job was to keep him distracted with the current case, while this one was working the people up. He would need to split his time in watching both of them till they proved that they could be trusted alone in his city.

He eyed the young man and wondered what it was that had really brought the man here. What was down in the sewers of Gotham, which could actually interest a man of his current power? What was more, what was he? He had battled Croc to a draw. That was not exactly an easy feat, considering the fact that the person in question had some fairly enhanced super strength. Another piece of this puzzle to look into.

The man before him was giving off waves of anger and irritation, and several other emotions were written on his face as well. While it was probably not the best way to keep people coming to you, it was a great way to keep people away for short periods, unless you already had a reputation as someone not to mess with. With just a few words here, he could have people thinking that the man before them was the Batman. Despite the fact, that this was the man's first time in Gotham. It was something to consider, if he decided to get in his way. '_If he got in the way, then he wouldn't have a moments rest.'_ He decided, as he accepted his drink.

* * *

Angel studied the scent that Wayne had. For some reason it just seemed off for some reason that he couldn't understand. It was as if the cologne was something that shouldn't be there. But why did he think that? He had never met Wayne as far as he knew, so he shouldn't be judging the man's scent unless he already had it. It might be his scent was blocked by magic, but doubtful since this entire town was fairly wary of magic like something made you dislike it. He had seen a few areas that had glamour spells on them, but none of the big magic's that an operation like this required. Of course, it also meant that there was a lot off mystical energy around here that was free for use. It also explained why the teleportation spells that were probably being used were so effective here. But back to why Wayne smelled familiar yet wrong. It had to be the cologne, he must have smelled him before without it before. Then there was also the almost dead scent that he was getting from him. Some kind of herbs or chemicals that killed a large part of a persons scent maybe? And despite his enhanced powers, he was just barely picking up any body scent. But if he was using these sort of things, there was a question. And the question was, what did Wayne have hide so badly, that he needed to throw off trackers? 

For the moment he would have to ignore the cologne, and the almost recognizable scent and work on the other odors that he had on him. Despite his slightly rumpled look, he had been in the shower not to long ago. He could smell the water that was still drying, there was also a faint smell of soap that wasn't the kind that one would expect from some one like Wayne. It was just a basic type of soap. He recalled it as a kind of a gritty type. The sort of thing that a sportsman would use, but not a playboy. It was also the same as he thought that the Batman wore. _'No way.'_ The vampire thought. _'It couldn't be, this could not be the Batman. He might have some of the same physical characteristics, but there was no way this rich boy could be the Batman. Of course that was like saying Buffy couldn't kick his ass. And like Buffy, the Batman hid in plain sight. If Buffy wore a mask, how long would it take people to figure out who she was?' _Angel almost smiled at this. _'So here was a guy that he had been told to ignore cause he wasn't important in this town when in fact he was this town's version of him in a way.'_

_

* * *

_

Bruce watched, as the pale skinned man continued to subtly sniff, unaware that he was being watched out of the corner of his target's eyes. So he was dealing with someone with enhanced senses, as well as enhanced strength. If his skin tone was correct, then he had been talking with a vampire. That did explain his apparent youth, despite the fact that he was the CEO of a powerful law firm. Now the only question was, what was it doing out of LA? And why it felt that his city was the place to stop? When he has observed the vampire, it had been attempting to beat information out of Croc. The wrong way to go with the crazy animal that Croc had become. Croc was a firm believer of death by combat, and his savage like mind rarely thought things out very well anymore.

Moving slowly, Wayne stuck his hand in his pocket, and placed a ring on his finger before he withdrew his arm. The ring was bulky, and was not within his usual choice of wear, but he allowed it for a few minutes, since it had large crosses all over it.

"Well Mr. Angel, as enjoyable as this is, I do have other people to talk with tonight. Just as I'm sure you have other business tonight as well."

* * *

"Unfortunately I do." The vampire said, as he shook the offered hand He had to work not to yelp, or jerk back to quickly, as his flesh connected with the crosses. The holy emblems branded his skin. _'Well it looked like he had been found out. That also proved his suspicions though.'_ He flexed his hand, as he nodded to the human in front of him. "Another time Mr. Wayne. Who knows, maybe I'll see you again tonight, but in a different kind of business." 

"You never know Mr. Angel. The night holds all sorts of **demonic** things, that one has to watch for." Wayne returned, without batting an eye.

"True, but what's worse the monster or the person that hides behind the monster?"

" It depends on what its task is. Is it a protector, or a destroyer?" Wayne asked of the vampire.

"And when you find one that has elements of both kinds in it? Or one that was formerly one, but is now trying to make up for its deeds?"

"If it is truly willing to pay the price for its misdeeds, then there is a possibility for hope. But one should always keep an eye out, just in case it ever tries to make a reemergence of its old self."

"Granted, but who watches the watcher?"

Wayne shrugged. "Who knows? The world, and the very night itself have many guardians. If the circumstances are right, they sometimes combine their powers for a time."

* * *

The two nodded one more time, before they went their separate ways. Each of them considering, what they had just discussed. Wayne talked with various legitimate businessmen and heirs, while Angel joined his man in getting to know some of the other townspeople. 

"Bruce." Luscious said worriedly, as he came up beside the Wayne heir. "What were you talking to that man about?"

"Oh you know, this and that." Bruce said shrugging.

"Tell me you didn't promise him anything." The dark skinned man pleaded, as he looked at the man in dark clothes.

"Of course not. Like I said, we only talked about this and that. Like the night, clothes and forgiveness, or I think it was something like that."

"Good, cause we don't want to get in business with Wolfram and Hart Bruce." The man said. "We are perfectly fine without them."

Bruce nodded absently, as his eyes roamed around. He noticed that the Vampire's business, tended to lead him toward the less savory types of people, and that he only half tried greeting them. The case was obviously weighing heavily on his mind for some reason. _'Was there some sort of personal conflict in it for him as well?'

* * *

_

Angel smiled grimly, as he was introduced to yet another Mafia head. This one though was not part of the group that had asked for Wolfram and Hart's assistance. With the reports that Wes had given him, he knew that this man was a mid level leader, that followed a different group out of blood, more than anything. Still, he could be a dangerous enemy. Both sides had a bit of suspicion that it was the other group of crime lords that were taking the kids.

He just wished he could get out of here, and find the kids. Cause the sooner he got that done, the sooner he could get out of here before Buffy showed up. "So, you are the one that the others called to find the children?"

"Yeah, me and my team have a bit of experience with this sort of thing." _'And I'd much rather be out looking than listening to you and eating and drinking things I don't even need.'_ He thought to himself. "I presume that your people have set up an investigative team of your own?"

"Yes, though we decided to use the local talent instead of looking elsewhere. While they're not the Bat, or any of his people, they're not bad either."

"That's understandable. Between them and us, we should be able to come up with something."

"Yes." The man agreed.

"And if worse comes to worse, we can ask this Bat of yours for help." Angel said sarcastically.

"You may be tough Mr. Angel, but a word of advice. Don't insult the Bat, he'll find out, and you'll regret it." The man warned. "This not the safe haven that L.A is."

"Oh come on, the guy's just an urban legend." Angel said waving his hand dismissively. Like vampires, or something. The only evidence I've seen of him is a modified spotlight on police HQ."

"Trust me, if it were as easy as that to prove him being real, we'd have found who he really is by now."

"If you say so." Angel replied sounding unconvinced. He didn't think the local yokel detectives would be trouble with the case, and if he could come up with an arrangement with the Batman it would make things a bit easier.

"Excuse me." He said, as he dug his vibrating phone out of his jacket pocket. "Hello?"

"Oi Peaches! What the bloody hell do you think that you are doing, going to a party when the Nibblit is out there somewhere? Did you forget about her maybe? She's got brown hair, blue eyes and a little taller than her sister. A sister whom I might add, neither of us wants to get mad at us right now. Any of these ringing any bells?"

"Spike calm down, I'm doing the best I can. This is why I called you anyways if Dawn thinks of a way to make contact then your most likely know it."

" Do you have any idea what the Slayer would do to you if she found out? Let me tell you what Buffy would do to ya peaches. She'd rip your sodding rib cage out, and then either stake you or chop your head off with em. That's what the Slayer would do. And at the moment I'm not sure if I would blame her."

"You think I don't know that?" Angel snapped at the other vampire. "But I also need the kind of information that this place has."

"Yeah whatever you big poof." Spike said, as he disconnected.

"One of these days you're going to push me to far captain peroxide." Angel muttered, as he turned back to the man he had been talking to. The man raised his eyebrows in question, as if he hadn't just been eavesdropping on him. "Why do family always feel like they have to question your decisions?"

"Let me guess. The younger show off, the one that always gets on your nerves?"

"Exactly." Angel growled, as he rammed his phone back in his jacket.

"I feel for you my friend. Is there no way to rein him in and follow orders?"

"Not at the moment." Angel said, as he thought of Buffy for a moment. _'How had she gotten him to follow orders?'_ "Part of the problem is that he makes a really good bit of extra muscle."

"Like I said, I feel for you." The man said. "Come, it is time to eat." The vampire nodded. He joined the rich people, and ate alongside the high-class thugs, and heirs. After the meal, and a bottle or two of wine, he finally managed to leave. He now had information on the infrastructure of the town workings, and he knew who most of the players were. He wondered what Wayne had gotten out of the dinner, as he watched the man get into his own car.


	24. Chapter 24

(This story is back by the requests of a person's constant requests that and I feel kind of bad about leaving it hanging for so long. This chapter is just to get me back in the mindset of the story and see where I'm going to from here. I still remember how I wanted this story to end so it should be somewhat interesting to read. Now on with the reading.

As usual I have no ownership rights on anything being used in this story.

* * *

Spike swore as he snapped his phone shut. "The bloody wanker is trying to get us all killed!" He growled angrily, as he looked at Angel's team that were too busy paging through the various bit of information to notice what the blonde was upset about this time. The blonde vampire refused to identify himself as a member of Peaches little group. He was just someone that helped the idiots out so that they didn't get their fool heads blown off. The only one that was looking at him was Illyria, who actually seemed more intent on talking at one of the plants that was in the office. "C'mon Blue," the vampire said, "it's time to go and cause some mayhem." The peroxide vampire stalked out of the room with his coat billowing behind him.

"Yes my pet, that sounds as if it could be fun." The Old One said as she followed after the irate vampire.

The two men looked up nervously as the blue woman left the room. While Spike was capable of being discreet and blending in with the rest of the world the demon that had replaced their friend while just as able rarely chose to do so unless it suited her. Although they doubted that acting like sweet innocent Fred would do much more than paint a target on her back. "Think we should go after them?" Gunn questioned the other man as he watched the two disappear.

"I hardly think that either of us would last all that long out there. We can only hope that Spike can figure a way to keep the two of them out of enough trouble that we are not needed to assist them." The man explained to his companion. "The truth of the matter is that neither of us has any knowledge of the working of this city and could end up making things worse than they are. The best option we have is finding a way to counteract or trace whatever teleportation methods that they're using here and use that against our enemies."

"When did we get regulated to research Wes? Used to be we were out there making as much a difference as the fang boys now were waiting for them to show up and do the hero thing." A disgruntled Gunn questioned his friend.

"It happened when we learned of better ways of fighting the darkness. The lawyer returned to his friend. "In order to change things it means that we cannot go rushing out half cocked either it's the double edged sword of having resources." The man returned sagely.

"So, you think that they'll find anything out there?" Gunn said a few minutes later.

"It is a possibility, as Spike has a much more ruthless manner to him that sometimes allows him to accomplish things that Angel cannot as he is simply too good at heart to do the things that he is required to do sometimes."

"A simple yes would have worked to Wes." Gunn told the former Watcher as he returned to his own research of trying to trace where some of the money went while Wesley returned to his spell research in the hopes of finding a way to beat their opponents at their own game.

Spike looked up at the demon bar that he had found. It was said to be a bit of a rough spot but he figured that it was worth the effort particularly if he was able to find the Nibblet before anything happened to her. It would be even better if they could manage to get her back before the Slayer and her groupies decided to show up and wreck everything for them. If there was one thing he knew was that the Slayer was more than capable of causing more trouble than he would have ever believed. The vampire stepped through the door and felt like beating his head against the wall as he looked at the damage. Someone or something had come through the bar and destroyed everyone and everything. Bits and pieces of demons were lain all strewn about the room.

"Something here has done some impressive killing here." The God King noted as she examined the kills.

"Yeah, unfortunately I don't know who or what did this." Spike complained in annoyance as he looked around the room. "The blood here is all over the place, it's drowning out the scent of anything else that might have been here. It'll take me days ta find out just what did all of this. Unless of course you have some fancy mojo that can tell us what happened here?" He asked as he kicked a severed head out of their way as he strode toward the bar.

Illyria looked at the vampire in annoyance. "You know that my power has been reduced vampire. When I was at the height of my power such tasks would have been as simple as raising my hand. Now though such power is no longer mine to command because of the weakness of this weak shell." She explained with disgust.

"Sorry about that Blue." Spike returned, biting down on the remarks about it being Fred's body first. The God King was amused by some of actions but could easily destroy him if he did something that it didn't like. "Oi!" He shouted out how about some service here! How come the bloody bartender is never around when ya need them?" He questioned Illyria as he leaned over and snagged a bottle of what looked like scotch. "What?" He asked as he took a pull from the bottle.

Illyria scowled at him. "When we left the others you promised that there would be violence that we would be partaking in, a large amount of violence." She waved her hand at the remains around the bar. "You have yet to deliver the required violence that I require." She informed him in her usual blunt manner.

Spike smirked at her." I guess that just means that we'll have to keep looking for trouble and answers then love." The vampire then turned and headed out the door and wondered where the next place to try would be. That had been the third demon bar that he had known about. The trouble was he had no idea just what it was that was doing all the damage to the Gotham supernatural community. The thing was though that Gotham had a really small supernatural community when you considered how large the city was it was as if it was a place that no one really wanted to come to. He needed information though, but anyone that would have been able to answer any of his questions about the city seemed to be either dead, out of town, or hiding. He needed a new plan if he was going to be able to figure out just what it was that he was going to be doing.

The vampire was lost in thought when he noticed that Blue was no longer with him but watching a group of brightly dressed figures heading down the road. Spike muttered a few choice words as he saw the figure that he was supposed to be watching disappear after them. Rushing after them Spike turned the corner in time to see Blue waltz into what looked like a human bar of some type.' Great, just what he didn't need was for her Godliness to go and make a scene somewhere.' Spike thought as he strode into the room after her. People looked up as the vampire entered the room his trench coat flapping as he entered. People around d the room looked up fearfully as the figure entered. Spike smirked it seemed that even here he was the big bad.

The vampire's eyes scanned the room looking for anyone or anything that he might know. The place was filled with the various thugs and hired muscle that were a dime a dozen. His eyes turned to where he could see the indigo figure waltzing toward the back. Spike chased after her and caught up to her just as she entered into a room. Spike blinked a bit as he looked at the garish colors that were being used and he had thought Droopy and Lorne wore bright colors. Sitting there with sipping out of a giant tea cup and wearing an even larger top hat was some bloke that looked like he could have come right out of Alice and Wonderland. The second member of the table was wearing lime green clothes, with purple question marks all over the place. The bloke was also wearing a purple mask on his face as well as carrying a cane with yet another question mark on it. The last member of the group was a squat man in a suit with a pointed nose, monocle, and an umbrella at his side. The way that the last two men held the cane and umbrella left little doubt in Spike's mind that the figures were really holding weapons of some sort.

"Ah good evening my dear you must be the new talent that comes in periodically." Top Hat said looking over at Illyria with some mild interest. The figure merely arched her eyebrow at this as she observed the oddly dressed man. The man didn't seem to be all that bothered by the intensity of her stare as he began to introduce them all. "I am of course the Mad Hatter, recently returned from prison. Alongside of me is the Riddler, and the Penguin. At the moment we appear to be the only local heavy hitters that have shown up here tonight. And just who are you my dear?"

Illyria focused on the man that was speaking to her. "I am Illyria, God King, last of the Old Ones, reborn into this vessel and forced to walk amongst your kind muck." She stated, as she glared at the figure that dared to question her on whom she was.

"An impressive delivery my dear." The Penguin said, as he looked the young woman over with a lecherous grin as he observed the skintight outfit the blue figure was wearing. "However to operate in this town it takes more than just looking and sounding good, you have to be able to back what you do up with either muscle, money or brains."

"It is unwise to try me muck." Illyria returned to the portly man. "If you anger me I will be forced to dispose of you."

Penguin gritted his teeth at that. "Do not try me my dear, you are likely to regret trying something like that." The man warned her. "We have all survived the Bat! Which is no doubt a lot more than you can actually claim to have done."

Illyria gave Penguin a bored look and raised her hand to strike at him when Spike decided to make himself known. "Careful there mate, you don't want to make her angry. She gets started she ain't likely to stop till your nothing but a bloody mess and that's only if you're lucky."

The group at the table regarded the blonde for a moment as it was obvious he was with the blue woman. "And who are you?" Mad Hatter questioned looking at the figure as if he was a specimen.

"Names Spike," the vampire said as he lit a cigarette, "I'm also the guy that's trying to save your life so stop being a sodding idiot and stop provoking her." The vampire informed the group that were trying to intimidate his sparring partner.

Penguin made a gesture with his hand and a large muscle bound man that easily towered over the blonde stepped forward and reared back his fist and fired it off. Spike's own hand flashed upward and caught the muscle bound idiots hand. Spike looked up at the man in amusement. "Seriously mate, it's going to take a lot more than that to hurt me." He mocked before he flung the human back into the crowd.

"You wish to perform violence with us then?" Illyria questioned the men curiously.

Riddler chose that moment to enter the conversation. "Riddle me this, Riddle me that What can you put in a wood box that will make it lighter?"

"What the bloody hell are you blabbering about mate?" Spike asked, confusion lacing his voice as what appeared to be an impending fight was interrupted by the man's stupid question.

"Holes." The Riddler informed them before raising his staff and everyone began firing at the two from a variety of weapons. A moment later the smoke settled and everyone looked surprised as they saw that the God King was still standing with spent bullets lying all around her. The black clothed figure was also slowly climbing to his feet shaking off the affects of having been filled with lead.

"You know what Blue? I think that you can go ahead and beat them all down now." Spike told his companion as he fought to hide his game face. "Oh sod it." He said as he let the change happen and the demon came out to play. "Let me tell you lot why I'm called Spike. Back in the old days I liked to take the heads of my enemies and impale them on railroad spikes. So unless you want to see what that's like you better run." The vampire bared his fangs and then leaped into the crowd of gunmen. Off to the side he noticed that Illyria had followed his lead and was in the crowd and tossing them around with ease. Spike smiled he'd almost forgotten how much fun that bar fights could be. Hell this was his first one since he had left Sunnydale and the last one of those he had had, had been while he still had that sodding chip put in his head by those military wankers. He sighed as he ducked one fist and backhanded the guy out of the way. Was a time that if he didn't have a bar fight once a month he would be worried he was losing his edge. Still he did get the decent scrap from showing the various tossers the right way to save the world so he supposed that it was alright.

A few minutes later the only people left were the three idiots at the table and the two mystical beings. Illyria strode up to them and threw Penguin and Riddler across the room where they slammed into the bar. The two hissed in pain as they slid down, each reaching for their weapons. Penguin got up first and did something with his umbrella and a very large blade shot out from the tip. The blonde snorted in amusement at this little display. He didn't know there were people that still used those kinds of things anymore. The man charged at the woman while Spike watched with half hearted interest as the Demon God King caught the blade in her hand and snapped it off the umbrella. Penguin swallowed nervously as he was lifted with one arm and held over the blue figure's head.

"Mate you try anything while you're behind me I will make you hurt even worse than you are now." Spike promised the Mad Hatter who was trying to sneak up behind him as he relit his cigarette. The man gave an angry screech and lunged at him. Spike performed a round house kick that caught the idiot in the jaw knocking him back into the table that they had been acting like noble crime lords at. The man fell to the ground, his giant hat flying off along with a hat that he had been carrying in his hands. The vampire looked up as he saw that Blue now had the barmy Riddler bloke in her sights. The costumed berk was trying to use some sort of energy weapon against her, but the weapon was obviously not powerful enough to harm her as she was walking right into the energy stream shrugging off whatever it was that it did. The skinny man was getting desperate and seemed to be upping the power that was being fired at her in hopes that he could still knock her down.

Illyria stopped when she was right in front of him took the cane from the man and squeezed. The weapon snapped in half letting off a few more sparks before finally going still. The woman then grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him up. "You will answer our questions now." She ordered him darkly.

"You don't want him to try and get him to answer your questions." Penguin said from where he was lying on the floor. "He's too obsessed with his riddles; you need someone that will give it to you straight without any additionst." The portly man wheezed a bit as he tried to sit up but only fell back down.

Illyria seemed to consider this for a moment before tossing Riddler onto the Mad Hatter. "Then you will answer me." She told him.

"But of course my dear." Penguin hastily agreed not really wanting to go another round with this very obviously pair of meta humans. He wondered how long it would take for someone like the Batman to deal with this pair. He quickly began figuring how much the information would be actually worth to the Bat. "So, what do you need to know?"

"Where are the kidnapped children?" Spike asked him before Illyria asked him something of no use to them. "If you go ahead and answer then there's a fairly good chance that I won't have to stop her from trying to kill ya. Besides you saw her shrug off the bullets, catch yer blade, and the toy of your mate there. Do ya really want ta know if I can stop her?"

You give a most convincing argument. However, I don't know where they are." Penguin informed them. "I've been searching as well, it's a great blackmail operation and I would love to get a piece of the action myself but there's no information on who's doing it. No one has left any of the usual signs though so it's probably not a costume which means it's probably some out of towner. Maybe even organized crime like the Yakuza or Mafia. The only thing is no one knows who's doing it." The criminal looked really frustrated right now as he admitted that bit of information to them.

"Fine," Spike said, "if you do find out anything we'll be in touch. Come on Blue Bird, we got other places to hit." Illyria nodded and knocked the man out. The pair walked out leaving the groaning mass of criminals to wake themselves up.

After the pair was gone a new figure entered the room and strolled through the crowd. The figure smirked as it stopped over the unconscious forms of the Riddler and Mad Hatter. "I do love it when they do my work for me." The man said before he attached an object to each of the men. "I got big plans for you two." The man said with a chuckle. "With you two I'll be even more powerful than before." The objects began hissing for a moment filling the room with gas. When the gas faded the two costumed villains and the unknown figure had disappeared.

* * *

Ain't I stinker back on the story for one chapter and I've already thrown in something or someone new.


	25. Chapter 25

Don't own BTVS or Batman characters they belong to Joss and DC Because if I owned them I would tell the editors to make a comic book and reap the benifits.

* * *

Dawn sighed as she was returned to the rest of the prisoners. She was glad that she was back amongst people that she knew weren't deranged. Here she knew that they were all just waiting there wasn't anything that was as likely to drive her mad. She didn't know why, but she knew that she had felt fear earlier yet now her memory was blank. She had also been screaming extremely hard if her throat was anything to go by. What had been in the room that had shaken her up? She sighed as she realized that the radio device that Tim had handed her was still in her pocket. She obviously hadn't found anything in which to use to boost the radio signal. Sighing she looked over at Tim who gathered her in his arms.

"How bad was it?" The dark haired teen asked her worriedly.

"I wish that I could tell you." Dawn mumbled in to his shirt. "I remember being scared, but I don't remember what I saw." The girl scowled at this in annoyance not liking the fact that her memory wasn't working. "Either I was scared so bad my mind is blocking it, or someone messed with my memory."

Tim nodded as he thought of the people that could do that. Mad Hatter and Scarecrow were on the top of that list. Hatter could do a number of things with his specially designed powders and drugs while Mad Hatter's control hats often left people feeling amnesic. He didn't see the point of scaring and then wiping her memory of the incident though as it wasn't as good way to make the lesson stick. Unless the lesson wasn't for her, but for the group as a whole he figured. Dawn had been one of the most self assured figures of the prisoners but was now shaking in fear and rage making the other kids nervous.

The shaking girl went to sit down and a frowning Tim wanted to join her but the sooner that he placed the transmitter up the sooner that his SOS could get out. Sighing he made his move and disappeared into the crowd while everyone was focused on Dawn. He stuck to the corners and waited. Everyone was watching Dawn to see what she would do next and this was the chance that he needed to make his move without anyone noticing. He took his belt off and underneath it was a rope cable and a few tools that he kept there for emergencies like these. He would have to move fast before the guards noticed him missing. Moving he managed to scale up the side of one of the walls and got near the top. He ran the sensor and grinned as he saw that the ceiling was weak here just what he needed hopefully the wall would be weak enough if he released one powerful communication burst. The communicator would probably burn itself out, but Oracle should be able to notice where they were or at least be able to narrow the search area down to a few mile area.

He slid down from where he was hiding. He looked up as one guard noticed him and he kicked himself he had been noticed. He thought about trying to slip into the crowd but a hand caught him from behind. He turned to look and saw that it was the knife meta that was holding onto him. "Let's go kid." The thug said. "The boss wants to have a word with you. And after you decided to play Spiderman up there I think that it's a good idea. You really shouldn't try and look for an escape or cause a commotion. It just means that the boss has to make an example out of you."

The thug led Tim through the door he noticed that other kids were noticing that the guards had another person and there was whispered surprised as they saw who they now had. He saw Dawn coming to the edge of the crowd and staring at him in disbelief before the door shut. He shook his head he should have just tried to make a move so that he could be taken to this part of the base then he could have deposited the communicator somewhere. Oh well he would just have to do something else. He thought to himself as they were walking through a darkened area where there weren't any guards. He made his move then. He grabbed the thug by the wrist and with a well practiced twist broke his hold on him and with another move flipped the guy off of him. He placed a quick kick to the face that knocked the guy out. Tim moved quickly by tying the guy up and placing the guy out of the way. Now all he had to do was wait for the others to show up when the communicator released a comm. burst. The timer had it going off in three more minutes. Melting into the shadows the boy waited for the next thing to happen.

* * *

Oracle's computers had already been set to begin focusing primarily on the countryside of Gotham. All of the information they had pointed to an out of the way hideout more obscure than even Two-Face usually used on his hideouts. When the timer ran down on the countdown for the communicator they were prepared and narrowed in on the area that they needed to know before said communicator blew its power and died.

Oracle smiled as she saw the coordinates that had popped up from the transmission burst. "Batman come in. I have the coordinates for the area that we're searching for." She said to the leader of the Bat Clan.

"Download it to my computer," Batman ordered, "I want to know what it is that we're getting into."

"Doing so now," The young woman returned to her former mentor. "Do you intend to share this information or do you want us to handle it ourselves?" She questioned him knowing that he was likely to go either way when it came to sharing this information. The fact that Tim was in trouble would probably be the only reason that he might consider sharing the location of the kidnappers. The computer hacker had to admit that they had been of a lot of help particularly in finding vampire and demonic safe houses.

"Don't tell them just yet." Batman returned to her. "I want to examine the information and perform some recon on the area before I decide whether or not these others would be of use in the rescuing of these children. Have N, H and Cat Woman meet me there. We'll see if there are any possible magic's in the area before we involve them."

"Understood, we'll withhold the information for now and wait to see what it is that comes up." The woman returned as she began transmitting the data to the others. Once that was done she began giving him a report on strange activity. "According to our sources someone attacked Riddler and Mad Hatter recently and took off with them."

"Explain." Batman instructed.

"The leader is a meta of unknown origin female has blue hair, eyes, wears blue leather, and her skin might be blue tinted as well. Abilities seem to include enhanced speed, invincibility and super strength. She's reported as speaking about herself in the third person. Her companion was much weaker but had superior strength speed and durability as well. This one was dressed as a Billy Idol wannabe, had a scar on the right eyebrow, spoke with a cockney accent, and smokes. He's reported to calling the other one Blue which could be a shortening of her alias or could simply be the name she is going by as well."

"Have you run a program with any known associates of Riddler and Mad Hatter to see if the pair had any previous dealings with either of them or someone they've worked with before" Batman quizzed her.

Oracle with held an eye roll at his questioning her competence like that. "A program is working through that along with seeing if minor altercations to the bodies bring forth any possible matches." She reported to him.

"Keep me informed B out."

Oracle nodded as she began planning her own attacks if the Batman or the supernaturals should fail. She had to figure that any attacks would likely consist of Huntress and Cat Woman so that pulled them off any Birds of Prey team that she would put together that still left her with about a dozen others that Black Canary could get to help her out with their own rescue if they needed it. The woman wondered if she could convince the Slayer and other members of her team to either join or work with the Birds of Prey. The addition that they had would be useful, their knowledge on magic would also make them helpful particularly since it would probably be easier to get information from them as opposed to some of the other magical who all seemed to horde their knowledge or depend on word of mouth information to communicate. It was hard to hack information when it wasn't entered into any of the computers of the world.

* * *

Buffy sighed as Faith kicked down yet another hidden door. She and Xander had disabled the electronic security systems while Willow had disabled all of the wards. The group had become very adept at the system while they hunted. They had been doing this for a couple of hours looking for any information on who was behind the kidnappings and had so far come up with nothing for all of their hard work. They had played all sorts of parts to take care of the demons in this town whether it be the ones that hid in the sewers or the ones that had mansions. Part of the problem though was that the supernatural element in Gotham was incredibly small. For a city the size that it was it was insane actually, but the supernatural population was only about half the size that one would expect from a city of this size. The four of them were currently in a demon restaurant that was for high class demons. The group looked around till they spotted a person that had the most minions around him. The two Slayers led with Xander in the middle watching their backs while Willow covered their exit if something should happen.

The minions fearfully moved forward to intercept the group. Faith smirked at the group as she eyed them. "Do you really think that you can stop us?" She asked them in her husky voice. "I mean come on boys, we been going at this for a while now and we're all losing patience with no one knowing anything. What's to stop our witch over there from just lighting you on fire hmm? She asked them in a sugary voice that had no mercy to it." The demons shifted nervously, but held their ground waiting for orders or for fists to start flying.

"Bored now." Willow said, as she telekinetically grabbed the pair of demons and tossed them to the side.

The demon overlord glared at the group of friends angrily as they brushed aside his guards. He sheathed and unsheathed his claws a few times before he rose to meet the group of demon hunters. The creature looked like a cross between a giant cat and a lizard as it had all of the figure of a human like cat, but instead of fur it had scales and a forked tongue that darted in and out of its mouth. The demon did not look happy to see them as it took their measure in before it began to speak. "I underssstand your anger Ssslayersss, Knight and Witch. The risssing sssun youngling hasss been taken and now you mussst act lessst you appear weak. Even more importantly and binding though, isss the battle bond that exissst between you all."

"That is one hell of a lisp that you got there." Xander pointed out to the demon. "Have you ever considered having a doctor looked into it, or going into speech therapy to get it taken care of?"

The demon ignored the interruption except for letting the group see him pop his claws out in annoyance. "You were willing to let me remain in control and only attacked anything unlessss you came acrossss it doing sssomething that it ssshould not. Sssomething I onccce had sssoldiersss of my own do. A war with the Bat isss not one that any would win. While we might win against the Bat it isss unknown cccertainty besssidesss if our war became too much the Ssstar Child, the Amazonian Champion, and possssibly Nabu's Champion would intervene. Againssst sssuch oddsss we could not win. In order for thisss city to return to itsss old waysss we must give you the information that you want."

"Are you saying that you're willing to help us out after having us run all over the city to find you?" Faith asked in disbelief.

"Yess Dark Ssslayer I am." The demon returned to her. "Asss the only overlord left, it iss my choicce to make. The others fled leaving the final call to me. I want a return of how thingsss were before the Bat became aware of usss." The demon explained to them.

The blonde Slayer snorted at this and crushed the demons hopes with her next words to him. "It's too late for that now scale face. He knows you're here in his city and he will make it his job to destroy you. His level of success though could be changed if we have my sister. You have no plans here to end the world so I have no reason to go to war with you." She tempted him with a smile.

:I sssee," the demon said. "I ssshall consssider all that hass been sssaid. To end thisss hunt on our homesss though, I have here information where it isss believed that the younglings are being held. We cannot get you closer than the area though. Perhapsss your witch can figure it out if ssshe only hasss to worry about a sssmaller area." The demon suggested to them.

Xander chuckled a bit as he realized something about the demon before them. "Careful with him Buffster. This guy isn't near as powerful as he wants us to believe he is. He's a power, but not the power. I'd say that the real power left the city when he heard that there were two Slayers on the warpath, and is just relaying a message to us."

"Which means that he ain't got any room to give orders about what happens afterwards." Faith said in understanding of what the former carpenter was saying to them. The demon growled at the pair angry that it had been found out by the others. "Oh put a sock it." The Slayer returned to the defiant demon.

Buffy smiled at the now nervous looking demon as one of the minions gave them the area that they were to look for Dawn and the missing kids. "You do realize if this information is wrong then your boss is going to have to discover a new puppet to use when we're done with you right?" She questioned cheerfully as she took the paper and passed it behind her to Xander who passed it to Willow.

"I am aware." The demon said as it bowed its head slightly and the group slowly walked out the door.

Once they were outside Buffy turned to look at her friends. "Willow, can you get us there?"

The witch nodded her head. "Yeah it shouldn't take too long to get us there." She assured them. "It's just a bit outside the city limits. We can get Giles and then get Dawnie and then we can get going and do our thing." The others nodded and waited for the witch to finish the spell that would get them to where they needed to be. A tornado erupted around them and they disappeared from view.

* * *

Angel looked up as Spike and Illyria entered the hotel room that they had been given. Lorne had traveled right up to the room and had proceeded to help the others in trying to find out how someone could manage to perform the number of teleportation spells yet not leave any signs of what it was that they were doing. The person had to have powerful protections around them to somehow manage to block everything that they had tried so far. "Where have you two been?" He questioned them in annoyance.

Illyria returned his angry scowl with one of her own haughty stares. You are not my master as the others appear to regard you nor are you my guide if I decide to take a walk with my pet and make much violence then it is of no concern to yours.

Spike chuckled as he listened to her defy his sire. "In other words Peaches it ain't any of yer bloody business." The vampire returned to him with a grin as he lit another cigarette.

"Spike, you're not really helping the matter right now." Angel returned in annoyance. He might not be able to do anything to Illyria but he wouldn't hesitate to beat on Spike if he continued to play his power games right now. Buffy was likely on her way if not already in the city meaning that he only had hours left before the top on this blasted city blew up and he would most likely have to clean it up. It didn't help that the last time he and Buffy had exchanged words he found out that the reason that he had started all of this no longer believed or trusted in him.

"Up yours," The blonde vampire returned to him before he waltzed the rest of the way in smirking at Angel who was visibly retraining himself from lunging at him. "Blue and I went around asking questions and didn't get a whole lot of feedback from the local wankers. Looks like we're gonna have to try something else if we're going to get anything done here."

"And what do you suggest we do captain peroxide?" Angel growled at him. "We've already hit every cop and demon bar out there that we know of."

Spike scoffed at the other vampire. "It's real simple mate, so simple that anyone with half a brain should have been able to figure it out. Course, that probably explains why you never did." He sneered at his grandsire. "Just offer to pay some bird to tell ya everything there is and you'll find them easy enough."

"Great idea Spike, except for the fact that we don't have the time to hunt down an informant." Angel returned to him.

"What did ya think that we were doing out there Peaches getting our hair done?"

"Actually, with all the work that has to be done to both of your hair that's actually possible." Gunn noted to the others with a smirk getting a glare from the blonde vampire.

"That's real funny Charlie boy." Spike told the lawyer dryly. "Anyways we did managed to spread the word on what it is that we're looking for. If we're lucky we can get this mess cleaned up before the Slayer and her lot decide to blow into town."

"You fear the Slayer and how she shall act." Illyria noted to the others disdainfully. "Why do you fear this muck? Have you not destroyed two of their number before my pet?"

"Well yeah sure I have Blue, but there's something different about Buffy not to mention she's got all sorts of help to back her up when she needs it. She's got Red, the Watcher, Droopy, and all of the little mini slayers that will come if she gives a holler out to them. It's enough to make anyone to be a bit nervous." The Slayer of Slayers admitted to the primordial being.

"Bah, when I was at my full power I would have used such creatures as these slayers to clean my teeth or to service my armies in whatever ways that it was that they desired of them. I doubt but any but a few of them would have been worth more than the lowest of my warriors." Illyria declared while glaring at the group. "The one known as Faith would have made a most amusing pet alongside of Spike." She added as an afterthought as if she was considering collecting the dark haired slayer for that duty.

Spikes eyes glazed over as he considered all of those young slayers and Buffy being at the beck and call of the Old One or those loyal to her. It almost made him wish that she was still at her old power and had her army to call upon. 'She had to like him more than Peaches right?' The bleached vampire thought to himself as he daydreamed.

They were interrupted as a a knock on the door happened. The group exchanged looks before a nod from Angel had Wesley opening the door. The group looked and saw that a demon was standing there. "Angelus, Spike, Illyria, and company." The demon greeted, sneering at the other members of the group. "I bring you word. The place where the half-breeds are doing business has been found."

"Why are you telling us?" Wesley questioned suspiciously.

After a look from Angel the demon began to explain his reasons to them. "The Bat has learned of our presence and we shall have to curb much of what we do as it is in our efforts to escape from his sight." The demon replied looking annoyed at the idea that they would have to hide themselves from a human. It was one thing to hide from a Slayer another to hide from a human with no mystical abilities. "While there are those that feel confident in their ability to take him, they are not interested in the return of the original Lantern or in the prospect that the Amazon would come after us. No, our community will have to learn on getting by at half its original strength for years to come now." The demon complained to Angel. "It is because of those half breeds that we have been brought down to this." The creature growled.

"You're Scourge." Angel said angrily as he remembered Doyle, and what his friend had done to save those like him.

"No vampire, I am not. I have clan mates in the Scourge, but I do not have any other connections to them other than that." The demon informed the vampire quickly. "Do you really think any self respecting members of the Scourge would have anything to do with a vampire? Particularly one that helped destroy one of their finest creations."

"You're hoping we'll go in there and weaken or kill a bunch of half breeds and then you can take their places with the least amount of business loss to yourselves then." Wesley said in understanding of what the demon was trying to get them to do. "You plan on taking advantage of the power vacuum that they leave and try and give yourselves an even firmer grip here."

"The Bat has in his own way made the city a safe haven for the half breeds to live out their so called lives in peace." The demon sneered at them. "If we move now we can make a move that will give us more power in this city than we've ever had. The old lantern knew what to watch for, but the Bat doesn't. We can profit from the fallout of this after the Batman is done with his games."

"Give us the address and we'll check it out mate. If you really want us to do the job so badly." Spike said witha bit of impatience.

"There was a promise of payment though." The demon said.

"And you want us to help you set up the half-breeds. Seems to me we both want things and that it will be with dealing that we're all gonna get what we want. Its real simple either you tell us and there's a good chance that we end up killing a lot of folks or you wait for this Bat poofter to find it and you don't get as good of a deal. I hear the bloke's not real big on human blood being spilt. Have him do it and you know that not a whole lot is going to happen to em. Let us do it and blood we'll have at least a fifty percent chance of happening if they make trouble for us." The demon scowled but tossed a piece of paper with the address on it toward the blonde before walking out. "Pleasure doin business with ya mate." Spike said with a grin before he passed the paper off to Wesley who then handed it to Angel. "Easy as pie." Spike bragged as he popped the collar of his duster.

"Let's go." Angel said grabbing some weapons as he headed for the door. The dark vampire really needed to kill something now after listening to that demon and what he intended to do to half-breeds. The vampire really hoped that there was a demon of some sort there for him to kill. The others nodded and followed after their friend and leader.

* * *

The Batman led Nightwing, Batgirl, Huntress, and Catwoman towards the building that was standing before them. The plan was to do recon and if it was possible to ahead and break the children out if they could find a way to get in. The fact that they could do it without the Slayers made it all the more easy as far as the Dark Knight was concerned. Having outsiders getting in the way always caused problems. Gotham was his city and he was going to ensure that they knew that.

"So, that's the place then?" Nightwing asked as he looked through a pair of binoculars at the building. "Do we have a plan or do we want to try the basic sneak and grab scenario?" He asked as he passed his binoculars to Huntress.

Batman nodded his head in agreements and was about to gesture them forward when a small tornado appeared before them. Each member of the group drew a weapon from their belts and prepared for the first level of security that they might be facing. When the tornado disappeared though, all that was left was the Slayer and her team alongside them was a new figure wearing a trench coat, hat, and mask over his clothes. "What are you doing here?" Batman hissed at them in anger not returning his batarang. Had they had only been pretending to help and had been leading them around for the last few hours, while they figured the best way to take them down was already filtering through his mind. If they had merely been stalling them with talking about the supernatural and showing him the demonic underground while Robin was in danger then he would make them all pay.

"Same as you big guy." The brunette girl said as she turned to glare back at the Bat Clan. "Can't help but notice that you guys look like you're about to go in. I thought the idea was to go in all together to save the kids? Or was that something I'm imagining and I misheard things?" She mocked as she looked the group over.

"Like you weren't going to do the same?" Nightwing asked in amusement. "So who's the new guy?" He asked nodding toward the unknown.

"Him? Oh, uh just call him Watcher." Slayer said quickly while the other man huffed. "Hey, it was that or your nickname from Spike." She told the older man. This seemed to quiet the man down somewhat though he did continue to glare at the young woman.

"We can worry about it later." Batman growled as he turned away from the group to observe the building again. "O, what kind of information can you tell me about this place?" He questioned the hacker.

"It's supposed to be one of your basic country areas the particular building you're interested in used to belong to a church though. It was used as a drop off point for various smugglers that were trying to move things inland without having to pay any tariff taxes." The woman replied.

"This area was also used for a number of various sacrifices to various Gods over the years as well." Watcher told them. "The area is just the right distance away from all of the primary elements to be a good area to be used as a sacrifice area. The built up energy has for the most part been untapped. All of the excessive magical energy makes it rather hard to get a read on anything which is why we missed it when we first started out. However something is using the energy now, not a lot of it but a bit of it. This probably means an amateur or someone with low power levels. It could also be that they were trying to avoid detection though and they figured that the best way to do that was only to use small amounts of magic."

"So we could be dealing with someone that is about to blow the lid off of everything then." Batman said with narrowed eyes as he watched the group. The Slayer and her followers seemed to accept everything that the man had just rattled off to them meaning that he was most likely one of their main sources of information. If they were allowing one of their main information sources in they might be somewhat on the level.

"Yes, something like that." The man agreed with him. "So how do you plan on getting in? I'm afraid my expertise in breaking and entering is rather limited to sacrificial halls and usually only during ceremonies."

It will be a piece of cake right Cat Woman? The Slayer asked the professional thief who merely nodded her head in agreement with the other woman.

"There are no outside guards." Huntress said from where she was still watching. "We can slip in before they even know that we're here."

"Er, Wicca, check for any kinds of wards." The Slayer told her companion.

The witch nodded and with a few mumbled words and gestures the woman began searching. She frowned as she looked the group over. "It has some fairly basic detection wards set up, but they're pretty good because they have so much juice in them."

"Can you get past them?" Batman demanded of her.

"Yeah sure I can get past them, hell the old man here could probably get past them." The girl said nodding toward the man.

"Good. We'll slip inside then and take them down quietly they won't even know that we're here."

"I highly doubt that we could manage that successfully with this large of a group." Watcher pointed out to the caped crusader. "There are simply too many of us to move around with any level of stealth.

Batman frowned but nodded his head in agreement at this. "You are correct we will need to make a distraction out here. Slayer, take your team and come at the other side. While you are doing that my team will slip inside."

"Will that work though?" Knight asked curiously. "They've seen us working together do you really think that they'll accept that we wouldn't come with you?"

"Isn't that what you were going to do anyways?" Cat Woman purred out to the young man.

"Well yeah, but do you think that they'll know that though?" The young man questioned with a cocky answering smirk. "So what we do is have a group go in through the front door making a lot of noise while the real rescue is coming in from the side door."

"Doable." Batman grunted in agreement. "Cat-Woman Batgirl assists them."

"Watcher, Knight your with them." The Slayer told her own people. Batman glared at her for pairing him with some of her people. He had people trained to do the job and didn't need amateurs messing things up. "What, they know the best ways to hit demons without relying on extra abilities. They're the best ones to do it. Besides how were you planning on getting past the wards without detection if Wicca is with us?" The Slayer pointed out to the Batman. "We'll bang on the door you just slip through the window."

Nightwing smirked a bit as he heard the young woman use logic against his mentor. She was right and they all knew it. The young woman was about to be one of the few people to actually win disagreement with Batman. Usually it was only major heroes like Superman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman that had that title.

"Fine. Go." Batman ordered ignoring the smirk that Nightwing was wearing. The Slayer had pointed out a good tactical reason for both of her members to join his so he couldn't very well ban them. The group nodded and took off to head for what could be thought of as the front entrance.

* * *

"Okay Wicca, knock on the door the rest of us are going to be on protection detail." Slayer told them all. "At least for the moment." She said with a grin before she turned to the Gothamites. "Cat Woman, how long do you think it will take them to get inside and find the kids?"

Cat Woman grinned as she got an idea of what the young woman was suggesting. "Depending on how big the place is inside and how many guards they have to take out or avoid? If there are only light patrols then he needs fifteen to twenty minutes head start on us to make sure that no one important is going to get hurt."

"Right, someone set the clock then. After twenty minutes we're going to move forward." The Slayer told the others with a grin. "Can't let them have all of the fun after all. Besides after twenty minutes we'll have dealt with anyone that will have come up anyways." The blonde smiled as she nodded toward the witch who formed a ball of magic in her hand. She held it and let it charge before she threw it. They all watched as the beamed slammed into the wall of the building. The building shook and like ants several demonic looking creatures led by what looked like a small army of vampires steamed out of the building.

"Sweet," the Dark Slayer said as she saw all of the creatures that she was allowed to kill. She drew one of her daggers and in the other hand she carried a stake. "Time for us to go have some fun." She called outd with a smile before she charged at the vampires ignoring the others.

Slayer shook her head in amusement at her friend before she turned to the others. "Protect the witch, she's the main distraction we got. Her job is to break the wards completely which takes a lot more power than simply slipping through them. If they're vampires stake them and if they're some of these half demons knock them out and we'll sort them out later." The two nodded as they each took a stake from the Slayer before they watched the young woman draw her scythe from her back and charge into the group.

"So do we stand here and let them have all the fun?" Cat Woman asked as she uncoiled her whip.

"Our job is to defend." Batgirl reminded the woman as she took up a guard position beside the witch. Cat Woman sighed, nodding her head in agreement. The vigilante/thief shouldn't have worried to much as more and more came at them some rushing past the Slayer and her companion an and heading for the witch. The pair of vigilantes moved to intercept them. Batgirl could have been mistaken for a slayer or a potential with the fluid grace in which she managed to destroy each and every one of the creatures that came at her. The young woman had no problems as she pushed her stake into the chest of one vampire while she broke the leg of another. The young woman was in her element there was nothing but the fight right now. Cat Woman was in her own way just as efficient using the claws in her costume wounded her opponents while the stake went and entered the heart. The woman had a simple system that was making her just as dangerous as the others were. The Slayers were either killing or knocking gangster unconscious and the guns that were being drawn were dealt with by the bullwhip, batarang, throwing knives, or the use of a magic spell that intercepted the bullet and stopping it before the gun was turned red hot causing the half-breed to drop the weapon in pain.

* * *

Angel looked the building over and with a nod from his friends they slipped inside. They had found a sewer entrance and despite the complaints of Lorne had decided that it was the best way to get in. The vampire entrance would make it the easiest way for them to get in and out. It was probably the easiest way to approach without being seen. As they approached they saw the guards looking Lorne over with uneasy looks. The vampire swallowed nervously before he came up with an idea. He looked at Spike and sneered at him. "I told you that the food there was going to do this to green boy but you never listen. You know that when he starts to have his allergies that he can't stay in human form."

Spike glared at Angel. "Oh so it's my fault that your boy here can't handle real food then is it you wanker? How the bloody hell was I supposed to know that you're little green man here can't handle anything beyond those Sea Breeze things of his? He needs to learn how to drink real drinks instead of those kiddy things of his." He sniped at the dark haired vampire as they continued to make their way toward the door. "Next thing I know you're going to tell me it's my bloody fault that Fred here is like she is."

The guards nodded and let the group pass by never noticing that one was a pure demon and two of them were fully human. As they passed by the group nodded toward another doorway and slipped in. "Alright now what?" Gunn asked them curiously. I don't think that show of our is going to full them forever when they realize that they don't have any Billy Idol wannabe vampires. How do we find the man in charge of this place?"

"Wes, can you do a spell that will give us a general direction to go?" Angel questioned the British man curiously.

Illyria ignored the group as they were chanting and placed her hand over a great and seemed to be listing to whatever the plants were saying. She then toward the group. "There is a sewer entrance to the main hall where are prey resides if we go this way then we will find it."

The others looked at her dubiously before turning toward their mage. "Wes?"

"It's not like we have a whole lot to go on." The former Watcher said shrugging. The others nodded as they turned to Illyria who was already ripping the grate off.

Spike scowled as he looked at the sewer water. "It's always blood and sewers with us ain't it?" He groused as they followed after Illyria.

Illyria made them stop a few moments later. "The guardian is here." She said after a moment.

"Guardian?" Angel asked as he drew his weapon and began looking around nervously.

"Yes, the guardian is here." She said and then turned her eyes toward one of the tunnels they all followed her gaze and saw a giant worm or snake like creature. It will provide us with much violence I hope."

"Oh bloody hell." Spike complained as he jumped back as the creature shot acid at them. "You are so picking up the cleaning bill for my jacket Peaches." He told his grandsire before he bared his fangs and waving his sword he lunged at the beast. The others followed his example while Wesley pulled back and drew his guns and began firing into the beast.

* * *

Batman led the others into the building while the group above them gave them the much needed distraction. Huntress and Nightwing were bringing up the rear while the Watcher and Knight walked in the middle of the group. The Dark Knight looked around for a possible way to deal with the forces that they were arrayed against. 'He really hated magic.' The man thought as he considered all the various spells and traps that they had been forced to stop before so that the Watcher could mutter a few words in Latin before they could move forward. He couldn't even deny that they weren't doing anything since he would see a broken smoky line break or a shimmer of light as a shield was shattered. He was familiar with seeing such things on the few occasions that he was forced to deal with magic so he knew that the man was doing everything as he said he was it didn't mean that he had to like it though.

They were still in some unknown area when the Batman paused as he heard something. "Someone is up ahead." He said to the others." How long until the next ward line?"

"One hundred meters give or take." The man said.

Batman nodded there was a large space of area then before the next shield or defense came up that meant that there was plenty of room for them to fight if it came down to that. "Wait here." He told the older man. "H, you're with me." The two caped figures slipped out of sight and down the hallway. Batman held his hand up as he listened, Huntress waiting patiently behind him for a signal on what to do. Another gesture and the woman leaped over him and fired her weapon while he threw his batarang another. There was muffled curse and the pair walked into the dark and saw a pinned Timothy Drake held against the wall.

"Batman, Huntress." The teen greeted the pair as he tugged against the weapons that now had him.

"Robin." Batman greeted as he reached behind his back and produced a folded costume for the young man. The young man thanked him as he quickly placed the uniform on over his own clothes. As he fastened the belt on he looked toward his mentor. "Where's my cape?"

"Nightwing has it." Batman returned to his youngest protégé." Move forward." He shouted out to the group behind him. A moment later the other three joined them. Nightwing smiled at the younger hero and passed him the cape that he had been holding for the young man.

"Who is this?" The Watcher asked with interest as he watched the young man hand a cape over to a boy.

"Robin has been part of an advance infiltration." Batman returned to the older man. "His job was to locate this place and then signal the rest of us. Unfortunately for us though we were unaware of the mystical element in our foes so we were unaware that we would be dealing with magic that would interfere with the way that our communications work. He managed to find some way to broadcast a short message though that gave us the coordinates of where he was."

"Damn, so you already had an ace in the hole then with the kid hero then?" The Knight questioned from where he was watching shaking his head in disbelief. "Is there anything that you don't plan for?"

Batman shook his head at the young man before heading off. "If Robin has made it this far without breaking any of the wards then I can only presume three possibilities. Whoever was in charge of security didn't count on Robin making it this far and the wards on the inside are not very good, something else has a similar feel to Robin, and sticking to the shadows which reside mainly in the ceiling which means that you probably jumped through the doorways instead of walking. Either that or you are under some form of mental control."

Robin nodded his head in agreement with his mentor. "There are also a number of air ducts that make it easier to slip in and out of without having to worry about walking across guards." He pointed out to the group. I'm guessing that there aren't very many wards up there because they didn't think to place them there."

Batman nodded his head in understanding. "We are therefore dealing with someone unused to people that don't walk. This means that the mystic we're facing while somewhat powerful is not nearly the power house we might consider him to be and may only know a few fancy spells."

"You got all that just by figuring out how your guy managed to sneak past the guards?" Knight asked in disbelief of the man.

The others nodded as they followed after the man. The Watcher was shaking his head as the man figured various things out about their opponent by merely figuring out their methods. The man was truly remarkable the elder man thought ass he followed the others deeper into the room.

They paused at a pair of double doors finally. "Here's where the kids are being kept." Robin said nodding toward the heavy doors." Over that way is where the head honcho is stationed though." He explained pointing farther down the hall. They were taking me that way when I managed to deal with my guard he explained.

"Are any of the children hurt?" The Watcher asked curiously.

"No, they're all okay some of them are scared but not a one of them has been hurt." Robin answered.

"Good," Batman said as he passed the door with the children in it and headed toward where the person in charge of this whole mess was.

"What about the children?" The Watcher questioned surprised that the person was ignoring them and heading for the other doors.

"The children are fine," Batman returned in annoyance, "if we stop the person in charge though then we stop the entire operation. Once that's done we can get them out of here without any of them getting hurt. They may already be gone due to the show we have being put on outside though. They should be perfectly safe right where they are since none of them are currently injured. Unless you want to risk the children getting hurt with all of the magical spells that are flying around outside?" He questioned the man darkly who took a nervous step back from the vigilante.

"Very well, but I don't like it." He told them.

"You don't have too." Batman returned before heading towards the door. The group slipped into the other hall and found a large antechamber with a thrown on it and sitting on that thrown was none other than Harvey Dent, A.K.A the Two-Face. The man was well known for his dual nature and coin flipping rules. The group all followed silently the two non Bat clan members took a few steps back and watched as the other three moved in. A full blooded demon in chain mail and holding a sword stood there with a regular human that wore some sort of tech suit with all sorts of gun ports. The demon sniffed the air and frowned as if there was something wrong and pulled his sword up into the ready position as it began looking around. The three superheroes moved in as it was obvious that they had been detected. Huntress and Nightwing dropped in front of the demon a crossbow bolt taking it out in the eye while Nighwing threw his own version of the batarang knocking the sword out of his grasp the two then made short work of beating the creature down. Batman had an even simpler time with his opponent as he landed on it deposited an EMP emitter jumped back watching as the armor fell. The hero then walked forward and dug a batarang into the back destroying the primary battery. A reboot without full power would take nearly twice as long if it was even possible.

"Batman." Two-Face growled out angrily as he glared at the Dark Knight. There was no way that he could go for his guns as the Bat would simply throw his weapon and knock them out of his grip.

"Two-Face." The masked figure returned. "We can do this the easy or hard way."

"I'll take you on! He snarled as he went for his guns only to have them knocked from his grip by the weapons of the other two heroes.

Batman then leaped and delivered a kick into his face before he tossed the person around the room a few times and then slapped a pair of cuffs on the former D.A. "It's over Harvey." Batman growled as he hauled him to his feet.

Now that they would no longer be in the way the other two joined them. "Very nicely done." The Watcher congratulated, he then turned to the criminal." Now then, where's your accomplice?" He questioned the man curiously.

"Why I'm right here Ripper." A voice said they all turned and saw an older man with thinning hair and a smirk on his face step out of the shadows. "Got to admit Ripper, that's an interesting new look for you."


	26. Chapter 26

Don't ownt BTVS or D.C characters.

Last time:

Batman then leaped and delivered a kick into his face before he tossed the person around the room a few times and then slapped a pair of cuffs on the former D.A. "It's over Harvey." Batman growled as he hauled him to his feet.

Now that they would no longer be in the way the other two joined them. "Very nicely done." The Watcher congratulated, he then turned to the criminal." Now then, where's your accomplice?" He questioned the man curiously.

"Why I'm right here Ripper." A voice said they all turned and saw an older man with thinning hair and a smirk on his face step out of the shadows. "Got to admit Ripper, that's an interesting new look for you."

* * *

"Ethan, I might have known." Watcher greeted with an exasperated tone of someone that is both tired and annoyed at dealing with someone yet again. "Who else would lend their magical power and knowledge to someone like this?" He asked nodding toward the captured Two-Face who was straining against his bonds.

"True, it does have a bit of my handiwork on it." The Englishman boasted to the other man with a smirk. "I mean who else would use the kinds of magic's I have to confuse witches and electronics?" The man questioned them with a cocky grin as he leaned against a pillar. The group was interrupted as the doors were blown open and the two Slayers, Cat Woman, Batgirl, and the Wiccan stood there. From behind them a hidden door slid open to show the bloody figures of Angel Investigations who were still wiping sewage out of their hair and clothes. The Chaos mage chuckled a bit as he saw Spike and Angel. "Well, well it looks like the whole gang is here for this one." He noted to them all. "Just missing soldier boy and the werewolf and you would have all of you." He noted as he observed them. "Well, all those that are still alive that is." He amended smirking at the angry blonde slayer that took a step forward while Ripper and the witch flinched. And I must say it's about time I was starting to get bored waiting on you lot to figure everything out. I mean the whole game was my idea!" The Mage boasted to them all. "The magic, and the idea of going for all sides and causing everyone to get cold feet. It was all part of my plan. The Two Face here was the best man for the job. He not only brought a sense of hominess, but he also knew how to control and organize everything. Although his idea of using half-breeds and hybrids was simply a stroke of genius on his part. If anything it added to the anger that the supernatural community would feel and make things all the more interesting." The man said as he gazed admiringly at the heavily scarred man. "So, do you want to wait for any more of the gang to get here or shall we get on with it then?"

"I kinda doubt we're going to need them to deal with you Ethan." The Slayer said as she glared at him. "Personally I'm kind of surprised with you. If there is one thing I know about you is that you're a coward."

"Well he that lives can make chaos for another day." Ethan pointed out to the irate young woman. "Oh, you're still a bit upset with me about the whole Halloween and tattoo things aren't you? I told you, that you looked great in that dress and the broody vampire over there dealt with Eyghon way back then. I don't see what the reason that you're still holding a grudge about those times."

"One, Spike nearly killed me over that Halloween thing, two, I had mental powers and heard what Giles and my mom did with your whole band candy thing. There are some things that as a teenage daughter I really did not need to know. Them doing it on a police car happened to be one of those things." The Slayer snarled at the man in annoyance.

"Alright, I'll give you that one." Ethan said with a shrug. "Good job by the way Ripper." He added with a grin to his former friend.

The Slayer continued as if she hadn't heard the man. "Three, I had to pay to get that tattoo of yours that you put on me lasered off. I had to dip into my shoe fund to get rid of that thing. If you had at least left money to get the thing taken care of I might have been more tolerant of you. Let's see four, you realize that I nearly killed my bestest Watcher because of your little games with the demon brew?"

"Hey you can't use that one, you already beat me up and sent me to prison for that one." The Mage defended himself with a grin as he argued whether or not she was allowed to blame him for certain things.

"Fine whatever," the Slayer said with a glare that should have killed him if she had super powers in her eyes. "Although that does bring up the question as to why you're your even out of prison. Something I'll be sure to ask the Army about at sometime. Now you know who Dawn is, and you knew that we'd come after her. So why the game? Why would you chance us tearing you apart again? This isn't one of those staying to see your handiwork either because had you left Dawn out of it you could have kept watching a lot longer."

"Because he has an endgame." Batman returned to them as he finally entered the conversation between the group and the Mage. "An endgame that he happens to want you here for. He wants to see your faces when he finally makes his move. The only question is what his endgame could that be?"

Ethan smirked a bit as he gave a slow mocking applause to the man. "A point to the man dressed as a flying rodent." The Mage ridiculed to the stoic Batman. "He is right though, I do have an end game." He said as he threw something to the ground and he and Two-Face disappeared and reappeared in the middle of the room. "It took me a while to figure everything out." The Mage said as he pushed a lever and everyone watched as several doors slid up and showed several colorfully clothed figures chained inside. "I spent months trying to learn how all of the various spell parts for this would have to go. I had to figure out who to grab and who not to. I had to figure out how to grab them and then I needed to make sure that no one disturbed me which is where the kidnapping plot came from. I figured that if everyone was to busy dealing with the trouble from that then they would never notice if some of the other criminals were getting quiet and would give me a chance to practice channeling the power into others and stuff. The children made great test subjects their minds couldn't cope with the insanity that I forced into them for a few moments. It was a great way to make the masses calm down if the supposed leaders were being tortured with the minds of the various criminals were in their heads. I had to figure out how to channel the power of these people as well. The kidnapping plot worked well in that"

"That's why some of them appear to be suffering from a variety of the mental attacks that they are known for." Robin said with understanding, Dawn's condition now making sense to him. "Scarecrow's fear theories, combined with the madness that Joker would inspire into a person would make a person blank their mind due to not understanding just what they were experiencing."

"I see that the kid takes after you in brains big guy." Ethan complimented the dynamic duo as the boy explained what he had done. "For those of you who don't know who's who I'll tell you so you don't get confused." The Mage assured the scoobies." First up is the supposed son of Zeus, Maxie Zeus." A light shown on a man dressed in a Greek toga with a full beard. "Next we have the one and only Mad Hatter, the man with a thousand hats." A light shown down on another man dressed in clothes that would look alright on an Englishman in the 1800's if it wasn't for the fact that the clothes were all garishly colored. "The Master of Fear himself, I give you the Scarecrow." The Scarecrow was dressed in dark browns and wore a brown tunic and a mask that looked like a bag over his head with a straw hat. "Finally, my master piece to the collection." Ethan smiled a bit as a light shone down on the last two figures. "I give you the ultimate pieces to my Chaos Battery, Ripper. I have here the Clown Prince of Crime, the one and only the Joker, and his faithful sidekick Harley Quinn!" Ethan said with flourish as he introduced the last members of his group of prisoners.

"Batsy get us down from here so that we can kill him already." Joker snarled at the vigilante. "He says he wants to take our crazy for himself. Doesn't he know that no one can do crazy like me? My kind of crazy is unique you can't copy a masterpiece like me." The clown man said as he strained against the bonds that were holding him.

"Why did it have to be clowns? I really hate clowns." Knight said nervously, as he pulled away from the pillar with the Joke on it. "Couldn't he have chosen something other than a clown? I mean we are living in a really wrong world if you mean to tell me that we actually have to go and save a clown. I mean that's just so wrong." The young man complained to the others.

"Particularly with this clown." Nightwing said stonily, knowing that they had to save the psycho from whatever it was that the mage had managed to put together

"A Chaos Battery?" Watcher said in shock and disbelief ignoring the other men as they discussed the prospect of having to save the Joker. He was much more focused on looking at everything that his former friend had managed to put together. "Ethan you fool, please tell me that you're not really planning on using that." He pleaded of his friend. "Without an Order Battery, you could destroy everything if you go through the ceremony." He informed the man in annoyance. "There's simply no telling what will happen with only one battery."

"Ah but Ripper, think of all of the Chaos that can be achieved by doing this." Ethan returned to his friend. "Besides I worship the Chaos not the Balance or the Order that you and your children seem to hold so dear. This is my duty I haven't forgotten just who it is that I am." The man waved his hand and energy seemed to shoot out of the pillars and into him.

"Stop him." Watcher pleaded with them all.

"Illyria deal with the backup and then come and help us." Angel told the Old One nodding toward the half-breeds and vampires that were showing themselves now that they thought that their boss was going to win in his fight against them. The blue demon glared at the vampire, but nodded before rushing forward to engage them in combat.

Nodding, their heads that they wouldn't have to worry about attacks from another angle all of the others moved forward to engage the Chaos Mage. The Bat Clan led the charge against the man. Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, and Huntress, all released a weapon toward the Chaos Mage. Laughing the man waved his hand and the various weapons slammed into each other so that they landed in a pile at his feet. Wicca, Watcher, and Wesley moved next and each fired a spell towards the man who merely raised his hand and created a mirror and watched as the spells reflected and were slammed into the ceiling.

Ethan laughed as he fired his own spells one from each hand at the younger pair of spell casters. The two raised their hands and formed mystical shields they were both somewhat shocked when they were blown over by the shields and slammed into the walls. "Is that the best you lot have?" He questioned them in disbelief. Before he could taunt them with anything else the two Slayers and ensouled vampires were there. He ducked as the four weapons nearly decapitated him and instead met and crossed each other. He then slammed his fist into the ground creating a shockwave that knocked them all back. Lorne and Gunn were next of the group to attack. The brightly clothed demon fired a crossbow bolt while Gunn charged twirling his ax. The bolt turned into a butterfly while the ax slammed into the wall barely missing the man. He flicked his hands sending the last two flying. Not stopping Cat Woman, Batman, Nightwing, and Batgirl moved in while Robin and Huntress prepared to jump in should they be needed. Cat Woman cracked her whip and the weapon entangled itself around his leg. Pulling the woman brought him down. Nightwing and Batman moved in next Batman delivered a hard punch to the face and while his body was up Nightwing sailed in and nailed the man with both his feet in the man's gut. The Mage slammed his hands onto the ground and a giant gust of wind sent the two heroes flying. Turning to Cat Woman he said a few words and the whip changed into a giant python. The woman barely managed to release her grip on the weapon as it snapped at her. She cart wheeled away from the monstrosity urging the reptile away from its creator. Gunn slammed his ax into its head killing it and causing it to revert to a whip.

"How did he do that? The Knight asked curiously as he pulled his own ax out. "I mean he's always had a few tricks up his sleeves, but he's never been this powerful." The young man tossed his ax to one of the other combatants.

"The Chaos Battery is fueling his magic to levels he's never imagined before." Watcher explained to the young man as he fired a bolt of mystic energy and watched as it was deflected casually. "The power it has from the energy makes him nearly unstoppable particularly with some of the most chaotic people ever born charging his powers."

"How do we disconnect him from it then?" Batman asked from where he was watching as the others moved in. The two Slayers had been joined by the two men and all four were bouncing back and forth trying to make their weapons connect with the man. Nightwing, Huntress and Robin were all going back and forth trying to catch the man off guard while he was busy with the supernatural warriors.

"I don't know, I would need time to study it." The man said as he scanned the pillars looking for a way to understand what the other man had done.

"We don't have time for you to read up on it." Batman growled out. "There are lives on the line. Give me a theory on how to stop it."

"Theoretically if you were to remove his connection, then the power levels would take a moment but would eventually power down." Watcher confirmed .

"And how do we get him to stop feeding off of them and allowing us to get them free?" Batman pressed as he forced the man to come up with the answers. "I somehow doubt that someone who has managed all of this that he doesn't have protections on them."

"I don't know." Watcher growled in frustration as he watched Ethan. "It's very complex magic if we do things wrong it could have all sorts of consequences top of them being that the back lash could cause natural disasters all throughout the area. It's not a simple procedure and I don't work with Chaos magic anymore. It would be like trying to fix a computer virus without having looked at any of your blasted computers coding in years."

"A frontal assault is not working perhaps we need to try and confuse him some more." Wesley suggested to the other man.

"Yes, and the only person that can do that is me." Watcher told the other man. "I have to be the one to talk to him. If I get close enough I might be able to stop him."

"Here," Batman said as he handed the man a taser. "If you get close enough blast him with this it should disorient him. If that doesn't work we'll try something else.

The man nodded before he began walking toward the other Briton. The other members of the two supernatural teams stopped their attacks as the man made his way through them. The man continued on until he was about twenty feet away from the other man. "Enough Ethan, it's time to stop this." He ordered as he glared at the other man.

"I think not Ripper, this is so much more fun and with my battery I can stay at this level of power for as long as I want. It'll take a while to get used to but I think that I can really make it work. I'll finally be out of the little leagues and able to move in the kinds of circles that your little witch does." Ethan's eyes gleamed with the madness that the criminal psychos had.

I think not the man said as he drew the taser and fired it at his old friend.

Ethan laughed as he caught the two cords and let the energy feed into his body. I have a son of Zeus helping me along with my magic Ripper. "Do you really think that I'm going to be stopped by a toy that shoots electricity?" While the man was distracted he was attacked. Nightwing caught him with a kick that stumbled him, while Robin brought his staff to the back of his knees toppling him to the ground. The pair were caught by a pair of mystical beams that knocked them away. Watcher was then forced away from the man.

The older man was caught by several pairs of strong arms. "You alright?" The blonde Slayer questioned him worriedly.

The older man nodded as he looked at the group on one side was a pair of slayers. The armor they'd been wearing somewhat the worse for wear, since they had gone against demons and now a supercharged Ethan. On the other side of him were Angel and Spike. The pair of vampires were wet and had slime on them yet the grim look that they shared showed that they were both with them for whatever plan that was figured out. He looked over at the Batman who was watching as Charles Gunn and Wesley took their turns against the man. I take it that you noticed it as well? He asked the dark figure as he was set down.

Batman nodded his head in agreement. Yes, the various mindsets are leaking into his own thought patterns. The only trouble with that is he can't comprehend what he's feeling and fight at the same time. He's losing the battle with his sanity the longer he remains connected to the power. If he loses himself completely he could and most likely will try and end the world because nothing makes sense to him."

"Very possible, he could think that Zeus would save him and nothing people fear more than the end and then there is the fact that he'll revel in the power. The only good part to it is that there might be a puzzle or a riddle of some sort for us to crack to beat it."

"And when have this riddles and puzzles had the logic of the Joker leading them Batman?" Oracle questioned him over the comm. unit. "Riddler uses logic to create his chaos whereas the Joker uses chaos to create Chaos. The man is probably getting more and more dangerous the longer he stays connected."

"You are correct, however with those mental patterns in his head we have some ideas on how to approach him now." Batman reasoned out. "It could be he will now have some of their fears as well, or maybe their egos."

"Ooh I like this plan." The woman said. "O, out."

"Everyone get ready to hit him he's about to become very confused." Batman said as he now approached the man.

Ethan grinned viciously as he looked at the approaching caped crusader. He pushed himself up and glared at the figure that dared to challenge him. Well Batso fatso. Now that the kids are done fighting me your ready for another round I see.

"That depends who am I talking too? Is it Riddler? Joker? Mad Hatter? Harley Quinn? Maxie Zeus? Scarecrow? Ethan?" The Batman ducked and dodged several ineffectual swipes that the man was throwing at him as he quizzed him. Or perhaps its someone else I'm talking to. Is that you Edward Nigma? Red Hood? Jervis Tetch? Dr. Harleen Quinnzel? Maximilian Zeus? Professor Jonathan Crane?" Ethan's face contorted in pain as the man continued asking for the various people that were now inside of his head. He gripped his head as the various personalities that came with the power reacted to their names being called. "What are you doing to me?" He hissed at them.

"I get it." Spike said with a grin "This is going to be fun". He said before striding forward. "Oi Rayne, what's the matter there you're looking a bit green there. Maybe you're a bit full there eh mate?" He taunted the figure.

"Hey Harley over here, Robin joined in, "I have a message from Pam. You do remember who Pam is right?"

Xander chimed in next. "Hey Hatter what's a matter?"

The other members of the supernatural teams watched as the rest of the Bat clan joined the circle as they began speaking the names of the various beings.

"Professor Jonathan Crane?"

"Joker?"

"Edward Nigma?"

"Mad Hatter?

"Harley Quinn?"

"Maximilian Zeus?"

"Scarecrow?"

"Jervis Tetch?"

"Ethan?"

"Red Hood?"

"Dr. Harleen Quinnzel?"

"Riddler?"

"Maxie Zeus?"

The group walked around the Chaos mage slowly alternating who they called as they completely confused the man. Batman added to the confusion by adding other aliases that the crime lords had gone by. All the power that he had, and it seemed as if the mage was nothing next to those that defended the city. He couldn't focus on the fight. He was simply too confused with all of the personalities that were now stuck in his head. Moving with all his speed Batman delivered a kick that sent the mage falling into the arms of Spike and Nightwing. "Good work." Batman said as he turned to see the blue figure was now coming to join them. "We need to get them down and checked over now though." He added as he turned to look at the members of his Rogue's gallery.

"We also need to check on the children." The Slayer commented. The majority of the supernatural's looked up guiltily at this.

It appeared that they had forgotten the true reason for their being here. The Batman noted with a scowl. The Slayer though seemed very good at directing them though. She wasn't the most powerful or intelligent but she had the same air about her as others did that managed to get people to work with them. Superman and Wonder Woman both had the same air and he had it as well or he wouldn't have managed to find so many like minded people to help him. The girl's style was more like Wonder Woman's though in that she was both warrior and protector of these people.

"Not yet you don't." Ethan rasped from where he was lying on the ground nursing the side of his head. "That was only round one, we still have to do round two before I can call it quits." The man began chanting again and everyone rushed forward to stop him but lighting flared inside the building somehow and struck the villains the crackle then moved forward and struck the unconscious form of Two-Face. There were pained screams all around and then they stopped. Two-Face sat up slowly and turned to look at the group of heroes that were now standing before him. Flexing his muscles the man destroyed the cuffs that had been holding him. He rose up and finally lifted his head to examine them. His eyes were shining white with power.

"That doesn't look good." Knight commented as he picked up a weapon from the ground as the figure observed them all. It finally rested its glowing gaze on the Scoobies.

_Ah my children, greatest of my warriors. _The creature said as it observed the group. Despite the deadly sound to the voice there was also a note of pride that seemed to be in the voice as well. _Long have I watched my children grow into true and powerful warriors. I look at you and see that years of whispers and training have finally paid off you are what I have always hoped that you would be. The masks that you wear cannot hide you from me your true Lord and Master._

"Uh huh. And you would be who exactly?" The Slayer questioned curiously as she brought the scythe up into the ready position. She kept her eyes on the glowing orbs of her opponent as she felt and sensed the others do the same. Spike and Angel her vampire companions each took up their spots on either side of her. Willow Giles and Wesley were pulling back for long distance and Faith and Xander were ready to pop in wherever they were needed.

"_I am Janus, Lord of Chaos and the one with whom you owe your allegiance to." _The figure said as it opened its arms wide to welcome the group. _"You are my children though."_

Batman frowned as he heard this. The creature considered them his children? How did they regard him? Was this like Trigon or something else? He saw the other members of his group take their own positions in case things went bad. He saw a flash of light and noticed that Dr. Fate had appeared in his city. He wondered what it was the mystic wanted or if he was merely here as backup in case they should fall. It could also be that he had come to observe these Scoobies and see just where it is that their loyalties truly laid. It was an answer that he was most interested in finding the answer to as well.

"Sorry buddy but your no family member that I know of." One of the group said with a sarcastic tone in their voice. "You sure you're not just getting delusional or something? Cause I think would remember being related to all of these people then there's the whole remembering growing up in different houses."

"Not to mention the sex." The Dark Slayer commented while elbowing Knight in the stomach with a smirk. "I don't think any of us are big into the incest thing."

"_You need to understand then? Very well I shall explain then. My Slayers," _the creature said with great fondness directed to the group,"_in the guise of young girls with the power of the demon. My little hunters that have changed the world from what it was to what it is now. The perfect blending of light and dark you are. The vampire teammates," _it continued as it moved down the line,"_each with a demon of darkness known throughout the world as deadly monsters with more bodies than they even they know. Yet, the pair of them are cursed and blessed with a soul."_The two vampires glared at him in response, spike went even farther by tossing him the bird._ "The Watchers,"_ it said as it looked beyond the group. _"One whom changes with the wind and one with who has had life change you. Ripper you once were, Watcher is who you now are. A fitting name change for what you have become. Then there is my little Prophecy breaker."_ it said as it turned to look at the last members of the Scoobies. _"Powerless in all the ways that matter in the world of magik's great and small, and yet possibly the most great. A child that runs in fear from your basic vampire or demon, yet the equal to a member of the Order of Taraka. Of course there is the witch, a child of shadow as much as she is of light or darkness. You whom are versed equally in the arts of both science and magic. Admired and feared by those that you hunt. Then there are your other members of course the street child weapons smith, the demon that sings. Then there are those that are not here or have fallen the wolf, the soldier, the technopagan, Anyanaka, the elemental, the childlike would be villain, and the pure witch. Yes you are all my children and you have made allies with my Order side. You have allied yourself with the Knights."_

"You appear worried, why are you worried with this weakling?" Illyria questioned the Scoobies and Angel Investigations team. "He is nothing, at the height of my power this little Godling and those like him were like children to me and my brethren. I was the God of a God in my day and destroyed annoyances like him."

"Yeah, well yeh ain't exactly at the height o yer power right now are ya Blue Bird?" Spike questioned the former demonic god king. "This one might prove to be a bit much for us now. Only the witch has the power to slug it out with sparkles there."

"I shall deal with it." Illyria told them confidently as she moved forward to meet with Janus. "Youngling be gone from this place your time has passed." She ordered to the god it with a scowl.

"Doesn't exactly have confidence issues does she?" Knight asked the others as they watched the blue woman order a god about.

"No, our girl is full of confidence she is." Lorne told the man with a grim smile as he watched her head toward the God.

"Yeah," Gunn returned, "besides if you guys cared that much you would have come and saved her when you could have instead of letting things happen the way that they did." The street lawyer shot a reproachful glare at the other man before they turned back to watch the two powerful beings interact. He never noticed the wince that came from the remark.

The Chaos God turned to examine the figure that was addressing it and began to laugh. "_Can it be? Is this what the high and mighty Illyria, Primordial Master and ruler of the universe has become? Have you become this pitiful shadow of your former self with no true power left over? Oh the irony of it all. You who once lorded over all are now nothing but a faint echo of what you once were."_

"We shall see just how weak I truly am." The blue woman said as she lunged forward. The Chaos God possessed gangster continued to laugh as it casually blocked the blow. The two lunged at each other and everyone swallowed nervously as they watched the pair begin to trade blows with each other. Neither one looked like they were interested in what the gathered group of heroes were doing as they began to pound at each other for a few minutes they were merely blurs as they struck at each other. They could all feel the blows as they seemed to vibrate through the floor and into their own bones. An energy blast from Janus though ended the battle and sent Illyria crashing into a pillar.

The god laughed as it watched the Old One shatter a pillar as she was tossed aside. _"I suppose now we have seen what you are capable of these days."_ Two-Face/Janus jeered as he watched the stunned figure lie on the ground trying to gather her sense again.

That is enough Janus. Dr. Fate said as he made himself known to the rest of the room. You threaten to destabilize everything with you being out of balance as you are I must return you to where you came from and allow the mortal to regain control of his body before you do something that damages this world.

"Holy guacamole," Wicca said as she stared in awe at the man before them all. "It's him." She squeaked out as she eyed the powerful mage that was standing there.

"_Ah Nabu's champion has finally arrived."_ Janus jeered as he looked at the figure before him. _"I have things yet to do before I allow myself to return to a spiritual form. I will not let you stop me either."_ The god informed the Champion of Order with a sneer. With a wave of his hand he created a large ball of energy before he tossed it at a portal that he had opened. _"You had best hurry and find out where in the magical dimensions that I threw that Fate because when it finally connects with something it will kill thousands unless you can figure a way to stop it and there's no way that you can know where I sent it since it's on a multi phasing trajectory."_ The Chaos God smirked at the Mage of Order. _"There's a chance you can beat the answer out of me but what if you're too late?"_ He taunted him.

"It will grow in power then with that on it." Fate said solemnly. "Batman, I hope you and your allies can keep this one busy while I find what he did."

"Go," Batman returned as he tossed a batarang at the monster tying him up. Janus laughed as he shrugged his shoulders causing the ropes to snap under the strain. None of them had believed that would stop him though as more weapons were already sailing toward the god.

Fate nodded at the Dark Knight he then turned to regard Janus. "I will return." He told them before he disappeared into his ankh as he tried to trace the dark spell down.

The god laughed as he batted the attacks away from him. With another gesture they all saw the room glow a bright red. _"Wouldn't want to be disturbed now would we? That should keep all of the party crashers that pop in and out from leaving."_

"Those are some pretty powerful wards." The witch noted.

"Indeed they are," Wesley said. "I don't have the skill or the power to break through them what of you?"

The witch snorted at that. "There is no way that we're breaking though those without a few hours at least. We'll have to take him down before we can break his hold on the area." She informed him.

"Looks like your big gun has other things to do." Slayer noted to the Batman as she drew a pair of large daggers and threw them, while Batman threw his batarangs. "So, what's plan C or D for dealing with this guy?" She asked him. "My big gun's not doing a whole lot." She noted, nodding toward the witch who had finished gathering a giant ball rainbow of colored beams. They watched as she thrust it toward Janus who merely caught it in his hand and tossed it toward the rising Illyria. The blast sent the fallen Old One flying even farther away.

"I take it that was your plan D?" Batman returned to her watching the others move in. The vampires had each drawn swords and were slicing at the demon who was merely block the blows with his arms.

"Yeah I guess so." The girl said grimly as she watched the fight continue. "What I wouldn't do to have my old troll hammer with me." She muttered as she watched the vampires get tossed to the side and then Gunn get a backhand as he tried to come up behind him.

"We try to unbalance him." Batman returned as he leaped toward the Roman Deity. "Prepare to hit it as hard as you can." Nodding, the Slayer watched as Batman wound another rope up and threw it at the god. Instead of wrapping around his entire body though this time it wrapped around an arm. Nightwing, Robin Huntress and Batgirl seemed to know what the man intended as they each tied the god's limbs up with their own ropes. Nightwing had the other arm, Robin and Huntress had a line around each of the legs and Batgirl had her line around his neck. Together the group was holding him in place. "Now," Batman ordered.

Nodding the two slayers and ran and hit him with everything they could they grinned as they felt the god stumble and fall to the ground. Moving quickly they began pounding on the magically enhanced body. The magical users even managed to toss in a few spells that singed it.

Janus growled at them before he jerked his limbs tearing the ropes holding him down. Moving quickly he knocked the two slayer off of him. The two returning vampires steadied them as they continued making their way toward the demon trying to blindside it.

"Angel, Spike fang time!" The blonde ordered to them. The two vampires nodded in understanding as they grabbed the arms reared back their heads showing their fangs and then bent down. The two vampires had barely pierced the skin when they were tossed back by a pulse of magical energy that had them staggering back into the two girls.

"I think that makes it time for plan G now Batman!" Nightwing said as he leaped and landed on the former criminal he punched him once and leaped off. Janus looked like he hadn't even felt the punch. "Fire in the hole!" The vigilante acrobat said. They all watched as an explosion erupted on his back.

The creature barely stumbled at the force and merely stood there waiting for them. "_Come my children, is that the best that you've got?"_

"You think if we asked him he'd stop calling us that?" Knight questioned as he fired another crossbow bolt as Huntress and Robin moved in. The two heroes each drew their staff's and slammed them into Janus the same time as he tried blocking the crossbow bolts. This seemed to stagger him for a moment. He returned this by catching the blows on a counter swing and tossed them back.

Batman's eyes narrowed as he watched the fight. How could an explosive not even phase their opponent yet the combined force of the crossbow bolt and the staff's knocked him back? This was one of the reasons that he didn't like magic. The rules were not like the rules that the rest of the world had to deal with. Anything and everything that they had done barely seemed to stagger the creature however there did seem to be a pattern to when the blows affected it he decided to try something and hoped it worked.

He waited and as the dark skinned man swung his ax he threw a batarang. He had timed the throw so that it would hit at the same time as the ax. The demon grunted as the two weapons hit him. "Pair off;" he ordered to the others, "the only way to stop this thing is to hit it simultaneously. Once with a person of Order, and once with a being of Chaos. It seemed to be the only way to hurt him." He watched as Catwoman and the Shadow Slayer each ran past Two-Face on both sides and swiped at him with their blades. Two-Face roared as he felt the blades bite into him. "Continue," Batman ordered as he and Watcher fired the spell and batarang colliding at the same time. They finally had him on the run the Batman noted.

"How did you figure that out?" Wesley questioned as he began firing into the monster with his guns. Most of the bullets merely bounced off of the creatures hide. Batgirl threw an explosive that hit him in the leg that erupted staggering it.

"Deduction." Batman returned to the man.

"Everyone fire on my mark." He ordered." Now!" He watched as explosive bataranges, knives, swords, crossbow bolts, and brightly colored spells were flung at the Two-Face. Laughing the monster created another magical pulse that sent all of the attacks flying away from him and into each other.

"Well what next?" The dark skinned man asked curiously as he wiped sweat away from his brow. "Cause plan E might knock him around a bit but it sure ain't hurting him much."

Batman scowled, but knew the man was right this way would take too long to cause any significant damage the magicals lacked the training to move and fire while the slayers and vampires could hit they needed an equalizer which none of his people possessed. "Ideas?" He asked the group. "We can't chance bringing the roof down because the children are still in the building." They watched as Illyria slammed part of a pillar into the god while they tried to think up another strategy. The Old One was holding her own but would eventually fall again before the Roman God. "We need some way to better combine our attacks." He said as he watched another volley of weapons miss as the God raised his hand and blasted them away. "Preferably before the two of them do too much damage." He added as he watched Illyria get smashed into a wall. The magical barrier seemed to keep her from hitting the wall. Instead she merely was electrocuted.

"I have something of an idea mate, it would mean magic though big time magic though Red." The blonde vampire informed them.

"And what's your idea Spike?" Watcher asked as he thrust his hand out creating a shield to protect them from bits of rock shrapnel. "Right now I'd like to get this done with already and fix a nice cup of tea."

"Perform that sodding enjoining spell of yours again. It'll give ya the power boost ya need and it'll mean you won't have to take turns so many times in trying to hit him." The vampire said. "Blue here is buying us time while we figure out how to stop this guy and that's your best option so quit stalling and get to it already."

"Um no offense and all, but I remember the after effect from that and let's say not really wanting to go through all of that again." Wicca said to the others nervously.

"Yeah those dreams were killer, are you sure there's no other way?" Knight asked hopefully turning to look toward Watcher as if the man would come up with some new plan all of a sudden for them to try.

Watcher brought his hands up to his head but paused as if he remembered that something that usually resided there wasn't there today. "Spike may be right; the only way may be to perform the spell."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Knight said worriedly. "How come whenever he's right about something it's us that end up risking our lives in really unusual and painful ways?"

"Not my fault you got a weak stomach there Droopy." Spike shot off.

"Not know you two." Watcher snapped at the pair. "As I said, Spike may be right. None of our attacks are harming Janus and for the moment he is only toying with us. He's allowing us to hit him look at the way he and Illyria move there is no way that any of us are strong and fast enough to truly hit him if he doesn't want to be hit."

"What does this enjoining spell do?" Batman questioned not about them to use some powerful spell that could cause more damage.

"It's a spell that will boost the Slayers powers by several times. The only problem is that Wicca, Knight, and myself have to act as conduits for the power and will be unable to do anything as we will all be connected to her. It also shares any and all abilities or skills that the group has and place them into the host form temporarily." The Watcher explained to the Dark Knight.

"Can this spell be used to enhance anyone else?" Batman questioned with distaste as he considered what he was about to suggest to them.

"Well it's only meant to connect us to the First Slayer, so it really can't do much else however if you were to change a few things I guess it might work for others if they had similar enough pasts. Each side would need at least one person that could do some magic though."

"Does anyone in my group fit your profile?"

"Um Nightwing he has a few traces of gypsy magic on him. He's too old to properly train but he does have some potential." The witch explained to the man. "It might be enough to do the spell and it's not like I need to use a gourd any more. Also with the others I have at least two other experienced magic users." She said gesturing to the two Englishmen. Ooh Idea if I was to link all three together when I did the spell you would be able to draw power from everyone in the group and not just the ones from your group." She exclaimed her yes lighting up as she considered how to best perform the altered spell that could be their victory.

"I believe that we can do this then if we each send one empowered person out to the fight then we have a better chance. The person would probably have the combined powers and abilities of the other conduits as well if I'm correct."

"Um yeah, but we didn't even tell you that side affect that using the spell causes though." The redheaded woman spluttered out in surprise as she looked at what the man had managed to figure out from a spell they were only talking about using. It also needs the people closest to you. It needs the hearts, Mind, Soul, and Hand of a group to perform the spell." She reasoned to the others.

Batman nodded in acceptance. "You," he growled at Spike, "set the spell up. I need the witch to assist me in a few things first." The vampire glared not liking being ordered by someone that looked like an even bigger poof than his grandsire however there was nothing that he could about it at the moment. Batman ignored the vampire and fixed the witch with a look. I need you to get a message out to Oracle. If we can't stop this thing here and now then I need her to be ready with backup." He would have liked to use Oracle for the mind part of the spell, but as she wasn't in here and there was no way he could use her and would just have to improvise.

The witch nodded her head in understanding the guy seemed to be prepared for just about everything. She wasn't sure how she liked that, but considering those beliefs had let them find Dawn she couldn't complain about it too much. "I can use my magic to boost the signal of your comm. unit." She assured him. "That should allow you to get people in position for whatever you need. It'll be easy peasy.

"You have experience in melding magic and technology together then?" Batman questioned curiously as he held a radio out for her to work on. He rarely saw anyone in the mystical field use technology. The magic users in the League often had troubles at times with the amount of technology certain members used. If she was as proficient as she said she was she could be a valuable ally or a dangerous enemy.

"Yeah, sure." The witch said with a happy go lucky smile. "Most people think it's too hard. The thing is though, that in order for the magic to work on it you have to understand the technology. That's the real trick in working with techno magic. I didn't start off with magic I started off with technology. You know hacking here and there. It helped a lot when we were searching for possible vampires and we had to hack into the city records." The girl suddenly blushed as she realized what she had just admitted to doing. "Um oops, can we pretend I didn't say that last part?" She pleaded of him.

Batman nodded to the young woman ignoring her embarrassment. "A good use of your skills." He complimented her as he took the glowing radio and made contact with his tech specialist. "O, do you read me?

"Loud and clear B, what's up have you found the kids yet?"

"Yes we're being delayed by Two-Face though, he is currently being possessed by the Roman deity Janus."

""Your fighting a God possessed Two Face? Gotchya." The hacker returned to him completely unimpressed with the statement. As far as she was concerned it was business as usual really in Gotham.

"Send in the Birds to get the children out." Batman ordered. "We've got a method of stopping Two-Face, but we're magically sealed inside the room with him. No one gets in or out until he goes down or we do."

"On it." Oracle returned. "I'll prepare a secondary front with heavy weaponry. Oh and B? Good luck."

""We're going to need it since we're using magic to win a fight." Batman returned as he placed the comm. unit inside of his belt.

A crash was heard and they all saw Illyria fall down from where she had been thrown only this time the Old One was not getting up. "Oh bloody hell." Spike grumbled in annoyance. "Red get them set up. Cat lady, purple girl, slayer 2, your with me we'll see if we can't slow the wanker down enough for this lot to do their thing." The others moved with the vampire as they charged at Janus.

"We have to do this now." Batman ordered as he turned to look at the witch.

"Yeah one plan F please." Robin said from where he had been seated between Giles and Wesley.

The woman nodded as she held her hands up and the candles lit themselves and a card leaped into each of their hands. "Okay here goes, just remember that I'm kind of making some of this up as we go guys so there's no guarantee that it will work." She warned them all before she began the spell telling everyone what to say and when to say it. Taking a deep breath the witch begins a spell she had hoped that she would never have to say again. She feels the extra power that she is receiving from Nightwing, Giles and Wesley to strengthen her and make the spell work. The power from Nightwing though was really only potential to do some things and even then he didn't have a lot of power. Her main batteries were the members of the Council.

_"__The power of the Slayer Knight Vampire and all you yield it.  
Last to ancient first, we invoke thee.  
Grant us thy domain and primal strength.  
Accept us in the power we possess.  
Make us mind and heart and spirit joy.  
Let the hand encompass us. Do thy will.  
_Willow, Gunn, Batgirl laid their cards down on the ground. _Spiritus…Spirit." _They echoed as Willow mentally told them all what to say._  
_Nightwing, Xander, and Lornewere next as they laid their own cards down._ "Animus... heart." _They intoned as they performed their part.  
_Sophus... mind. _Robin, Giles, and Wesley said as their cards joined with the others._  
_Batman, Angel, and Buffy were the last ones. Each of them hesitated as they held the cards in their hands. Each of them had reasons of their own for not wanting to do this. Buffy remembered what happened the last time, Angel didn't know if he could trust the scoobies anymore, and Batman reduced to using magic. Reluctantly they dropped their cards into the pile of others._ "And Manus... the hand." _They said from the shadows.

Willow quickly took over and finished the spell before anything else happened doing her best to ignore the sounds of the fight that are coming from Spike, Faith and the others.  
_"We enjoin that we may inhabit the vessel, the hand...  
daughter of Sineya, Warrior of the Night and Heir of __Aurelius__.  
first of the ones...  
We are heart...  
We are mind...  
We are spirit...  
From the raging storm...  
We bring the power of the Primeval One..._"

Batman, Angel, and Buffy gasped as they felt new power and strength come into their bodies. Wind rippled around them as they felt the skills and abilities merge with their own. Each of them closed their eyes as they felt the change. The three looked down at their clothes and the torn and shredded uniforms began to alter themselves. Batman's uniform changed the least as holes repaired themselves. The main difference was that the uniform now had a leather like appearance to it. His gloves and boots had changed to mimic Nightwing's though the blades on his forearms remained. The Batman opened his eyes and they all saw his eyes were shining white through the eye slits of his mask. Angel's street clothes rustled as they changed as well. The fancy clothes shifted under the magic into kevlar and leather. A cape and cowl coming onto his head the vampire. This one was different than Batman's as it lacked the Bat look to it. He felt the magic create a belt and gauntlets that matched the Batman's. On his chest the symbol of a human skull with elongated fangs stared back without mercy. The vampire opened his eyes and they all saw that his eyes had now changed to a bright glowing red. Buffy's costume shifted till it resembled the Batgirl costume as gloves boots and belts took their place. Her mask shifted to that of Nightwing. The Slayer opened her eyes and they glowed a bright yellow.

The three heroes turned as they heard the remaining members of the group slam into the nearby wall. _"It's time,"_ they said. They disappeared in wisps of black smoke.

Janus laughed as he looked at the fallen figures that were before him. The friends of his children of Chaos and Order had put up a most interesting fight so far. Illyria had been a most enjoyable scrap for him. True she was merely a shade of her former glory and the fight meant nothing. She was actually too weak to even give him a decent fight. He tilted his head as he sensed a powerful wave of energy. He looked to the side and watched as three clouds of smoke appeared before him. The Ancient God smirked at the display. It was really only a minor demonstration of magic considering that he knew that no one could enter through his wards. As the smoke cleared he saw the most interesting sight before him. Standing there with capes billowing stood the Slayer, and on either side of her stood the Batman and Angel. They were different now though. The clothes were the most obvious, but the colored eyes that they now had was the most attention gathering. The three looked like some group of demons rising from the netherworld. The auras that they were showing were most impressive moments ago they had not shown anything like this.

"_Impressive my children."_ It said as it examined them with an inspecting eye. _"You have found a way to combine your attacks in an effective manner. Do you really think that it will be enough to stop me though?"_ It questioned them haughtily.

"_Let's find out."_ The Slayer said with a grin as she lunged she landed in front of him and delivered several earth shaking blows as the combined physical strength of all of the others fueled her. Janus tried to return her blows but she seemed to almost casually sidestep or block the blows. Angel joined her and the two performed a right cross that sent him flying. Batman flipped over them and his cape opened allowing hundreds of mystical created blades to fly out of the cape and at Janus, slicing into the Chaos God.

Janus laughed a bit as he created a portal and some of the blades disappeared only to come back out from the side aiming at the heroes. _"Did you forget that I am the God of Gateways young mortals? I have the power to redirect your attacks whenever I want."_ Janus informed them, some of the humor leaving his voice. The blows that the Slayer and the Vampire had hit him with had hurt more than he expected. He wasn't sure that he wanted to find out what all of those blades would have done to him.

"_Then we'll just have to try and do something else."_ Angel said as he threw a bolo that glowed with power at the demon. The weapon missed and wrapped around a pillar. The bolo brightened for a moment as it released a charge into the pillar.

"_You made a mistake trying this, in our city."_ Batman said as he appeared before Janus. _"No one threatens this city particularly not some former god that thinks that their magic is going to help them." _A pair of glowing Eskrima sticks appeared in his hands. Moving forward he began his assault the magically charged fighting sticks left small welts on the God. Every strike and counter punch was easily dodged as Batman now read the way that the man was fighting him. The welts weren't enough though as they were healing over faster than the Batman was making them. He brought the sticks up as a blow finally connected and sent him flying several feet. Twisting in the air he landed on the balls of his feet.

"_Not bad Dark Knight, but even you can't stop me."_ Janus growled angry that the man had actually managed to hurt him. He was Janus yet this human had managed to hurt him child of his or not he would make the detective pay for that.

"_He's not alone in there though, we are one."_ Slayer said as she moved in. The two began exchanging blows while Angel and Batman began throwing mystical charged weapon at the God.

"_It's time to leave."_ Angel said before taking a breath and letting out a shriek. Janus groaned as he felt the host body begin to weaken. The sound that was hitting him was going to destroy his eardrums He fired a bolt toward the vampire who jumped out of the way. He then twisted out of the way of the Slayer's way and back handed her into the Batman. As each of them fell they used nearly inhuman agility to recover and land on their feet. As they landed they each grabbed a batarang in either hand and threw it.

Snarling Janus captured weapons with his gateways and sent them back toward the group who were already and attacking again. The group merely leaped over the incoming assault as if it was nothing not even bothering to slow down.

"_Time to end this."_ The Slayer said as she summoned her scythe to her. Bouncing off a wall she began swinging the blade around. Not about to let the young woman win Janus summoned a sword and met her head on. The two weapons glowed with power as each wielder tried to overcome the other. Janus struggled against the might of the blonde haired champion. He was a god and yet he still had trouble countering this warrior. Snarling he pushed back only to be surprised as she let him knock her back only for the other two with their conjured weapons to strike him. The Batman with his Ekrima sticks, and the vampire with a glowing ax. While he avoided the weapons the follow up kicks that followed were a surprise as they stunned him. The pair back flipped out of the way as the Slayer sent a host of blades from the folds of her cape.

Janus laughed a bit as he created a portal behind himself and stepped back into it. The portal closed and the incoming blades smacked harmlessly into the wall. He reappeared high above them. _"You are doing well my children; you are actually beginning to make me work at this."_ The God taunted them. _"Come children show me what it is that you have managed to turn yourselves into. You have truly become the parts of Chaos and Order, Magic and Science. Show me the strength of your duality!"_

The triad ignored the mocking as they prepared to follow after Janus. Each of them threw their capes back and an unseen wind seemed to lift them in the air. A moment later the capes could now were wings the three flew themselves up and landed before Janus. _"Your time is over."_ The God sneered at them and sent another blast of energy at them. Batman and Angel were tossed off the ledge and the Slayer was only able to stay upon it by slamming the scythe into the ground. As the other two were falling she moved in a slice of the scythe at him and the God hissed in pain the blade knocked his own blade away.

Using the distraction the Slayer brought the scythe against his throat and held it there. Janus snarled as he raised his hands to blow her away, but two batarangs slammed into his wrist pinning him. Janus looked up to see Batman and Angel hovering in the air over their heads. The two heroes had merely flown over them and come in with weapons. "_Well done my children but I have not been beaten yet."_

"_You have."_ The three stated as the other two landed beside the Slayer and all three placed their hands on the God's chest. They then began to chant together an Ancient Roman exorcism.

The God howled in pain for a moment before he sagged and all that was left was a pinned Harvey Dent A.K.A Two-Face. "What happened?" The man questioned in a tired voice. Before he could do or say anything else he fell unconscious. The others watched stoically as bursts of energy left his body and struck the various criminals that the Chaos powers had been drawn from.

The three heroes then chose that moment to collapse to the ground releasing the power that they had borrowed. The Slayer lost her grip from the ledge and began falling a cracking sounded and Catwoman caught the girl before she fell and hurt herself. "Easy there kitten, I have you." Catwoman told her with a smile as she landed on the ground. She looked up in time to see Batman and the dark haired vampire slowly climbing to their feet and the various other members of the three groups slowly climbing to their feet. The group looked up as the door opened and several more vampires and half breeds walked through expectant looks on their faces. They all snarled as they saw the recovering group climbing to their feet and the sight of the pinned gangster and the beaten mage. Their hopes of winning now gone.

"Kill them!" One said and soon the various creatures were rushing them. The various teams looked on grimly as they then charged back in response. Weapons flashed through the air as blades, crossbow bolts, magic, and batarangs flew through the air. The Slayer, Batman, and Angel in their outfits would had yet to change back to their original appearance led the charge. The three fought like they rarely had leading their allies against the forces arrayed against them. As they fought weapons passed from hand to hand as each member used anything and everything that there was. The group smashed through the wall of foes and soon were the only ones left. Each was weary and tired but they all felt empowered by the battle that they had been in. As they left the hallway they noticed the missing children that were being led away by the various members of the Birds of Prey that had come to help get the children out.

"Whoa, when did the Bat get new recruits?" Black Canary questioned as she saw the group come out. Most of them were in either street clothes or leather. But two of them were in definite Bat gear. They may not be wearing Bat symbols on their chest but everything about their outfits just screamed Bat Clan. She hadn't heard of any new recruits from Oracle so the sight of two new Bat followers along with a combination of various other unknowns was interesting. She briefly wondered if they were alternate versions of someone or other before she returned back to making sure that the kids got out safely.

"Black Canary." Batman greeted to her. "I take it everything is alright?"

"Huh, yeah?" The buxom blonde said as she focused on the leader of the group. "Everything is good." She assured him. "I've got all the kids, and the cops are on their way. "

"Then we need to leave." Batman said looking at the new group pointedly as if to make everyone aware that he was in command. "Tell Oracle that she needs to have the police bring in several ladders and chainsaws to get some of the people in there out." He added as he turned back to address the blonde woman.

"Who's all in there?" She asked him curiously. She really wanted to know who it was that had been behind this whole mess.

"Two-Face was behind it all." Batman said. "He dabbled in magic to get some of this done though and had to borrow energy from several of the other criminals around the city. Be careful that they don't manage to get away."

"Yeah, now we all have to home and have nightmares about having monsters kill us and getting offered funky cheese." One of the unknowns said. "So if you don't mind I want to get on home so that I can get as much sleep as possible." A man with one eye said sarcastically.

The woman nodded and watched them all walk off into the night wondering just what it was that she had missed. It wasn't like the Batman to tolerate unknowns in Gotham for very long so she wondered what they had done to earn the Dark Knight's respect. She had never seen a group of unknowns so quickly accepted into the group. So either the Batman had been training these people on the sly or they had been through hell in that room.


	27. Last chapter

Angel looked at the incoming army of demons that were supported by a giant dragon. The army of the Black Thorn was not something one could ignore easily. The fact that they had taken out a number of their senior members meant that they were pretty angry with them at the moment. "Personally I want to slay the dragon." Angel told the other members while he glared at the scaled behemoth.

"Sounds like a plan to me." A new voice said as a costumed Buffy landed beside the dark vampire. She was dressed in the complete Slayer costume sans mask and cape as she glared at the army coming at them. Her scythe was in one hand while she held several batarangs in the other. She casually tossed the throwing weapons and smiled as they ripped into the various demons. "Tell you what, it can be a group effort even." She suggested with a grin.

"Slayer?" An incredulous Spike questioned as he saw the familiar figure step into sight. "Not a bad entrance." He complimented as he looked at the affect that her being with them had on the enemy. He did the math in his head. An Old One, a Slayer, two Master Vampires and one human would put a definite hurting on this group. Sure they were all still dead, but he gave them maybe three whole more minutes more now in their fight.

"Buffy," Angel said with a relieved smile. "Glad that you got the message."

"I told you that I would." Buffy returned flashing him a smile. "You want to lose the suit now though?" She asked him with a grin. Angel nodded and pulled the jacket and shirt he was wearing off to show his own bat costume underneath. Buffy handed him his spiked gauntlets and utility belt. He also kept his mask and cape off as he looked at the incoming army.

"Who else did you bring with you?" Angel questioned as he secured the belt.

"All sorts of friends." Buffy said pointing upwards. Angel and the others looked up and saw what looked like a few hundred slayers. They could see a few other people with them as well. There was Gunn's crew, Black Canary, and Gwen Raiden to name a few of the people standing there ready to fight with them.

"Where's Willow?" Angel questioned not seeing the witch.

"She's all out of juice." Buffy explained. "Seems teleporting a few hundred people is really tiring and she doesn't have the kind of power levels that Dr. Fate or the other magical big guns have." Angel nodded his head in understanding.

Several figures leaped from the rooftop and landed between them and the demons. "Batman?" Angel said surprised to see the vigilante landing with his cape pulled around him. A moment later Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Catwoman, and Huntress had also landed around the man. Each of the vigilantes threw something into the incoming horde of demons and watched as explosions ripped through the front line.

"Now that's an entrance." Spike said in appreciation as he looked at the damage the group had caused to the opposing force. The flames seemed to lick the entire area and bathed it in an unholy light that bathed everything.

"Angel." Batman curtly returned to the vampire. "Are you ready?" He demanded of him.

"I am now." Angel returned snapping the last bit of armor into place as he turned toward the army. "Let's do this I have a dragoon to kill."

"Good, Oracle begin giving instructions." Batman ordered.

"Right, you got it. Batman, Slayer, and Angel, head for the dragon the others are going to clear the way for you." Oracles voice returned to them. "As for the rest of you crazy kids you're the escort try and keep them out of the way so that they don't stop us. Everyone else can go ahead and fire now." The voice said. Some two hundred weapons were shot from the group of Slayers that were on the roof as they fired they leaped to the ground so that they were now able to engage in combat and make room for the next row of shooters. Javelins, crossbow bolts, arrows, knives, and axes were all mixed into the assortment of weapons. As some connected they exploded or released some sort of magical blast against their targets.

The assault force pulled D-Cells and fired them toward the roaring dragon. The group forced their way upward till they were on top of the dragon. "Cut here and here!" Batman ordered toward Buffy and Angel pointing to the sides of the head of the beast.

"What is this going to do?" Angel questioned as he and Buffy used their weapons to hack holes into the sides of the creature. Nightwing and Catwoman were busy tying lines around the creatures mouth while Robin and Batgirl were tying their lines around the arms and wings keeping the creature grounded.

Batman ignored the questions as he tossed one of his Batarangs into the cuts. Huntress followed suit of the Dark Knight by tossing her own weapon in. "Jump." Batman ordered the group. Everyone nodded and leaped off of the mouth and onto the roof of a nearby building. "Huntress now." Batman ordered.

The purple clad woman nodded as she fell she fired a pair of crossbow bolts. The twin bolts slammed into the eyes of the dragon who tried to roar in pain through the ropes that held its jaw shut. The heavy cables creaked and some of them snapped but for the moment they held the jaws shut. Batman pulled a remote from his belt and triggered it. Twin explosions were the response from his pressing the button. "It's now deaf, blind, and unbalanced. He informed the group as they watched the dragon teetering around unstably stepping on some of the demons beneath it. Finish subduing it." Batman ordered the Gotham defenders who nodded as they headed out. The man then turned to the mystical champions. "We need to corral these things away from the rest of the population of the city before they try and flee." He informed them. "The dragon is going to act as our barrier to keep them in place down there." He nodded toward the alley entrance now blocked by their former target. "We have to keep the roofs free of escapees." The two nodded in understanding as they waited for the various demons to pop up. As they waited other members of the Bat-Clan joined them and soon they were picking off the various members of the invading army that were trying to escape from the slayer army. Nods were all the greetings that they were able to give each other before their various weapons were flashing around picking the demons off as they came and joined them.

As the Slayers were cleaning up the last bits of the army the group landed on the rooftops. Spike was the first to notice them. "Slayer, Angel. What the bloody hell is going on here!" The bleach blonde vampire demanded. "How the sodding hell did you lot know what was going on? I thought the two of you was ignoring each other and that you were calling us the bad guys again." The annoyed vampire wanted answers to what was going on as it didn't make sense to him what he was seeing.

"We planned for it and were ready for it." Buffy told Spike with a grin.

"Yeah," Angel said with a matching grin. "The Council has had this plan in place for months."

"When did you two have the time to get together and work out a plan? I thought you were still having your little lovers spat?" Spike complained as he looked at the pair that were actually leaning into each other.

"Gotham." The two returned as if that explained everything.

* * *

**FLASHBACK**

Gotham City__

The group of heroes retreated to the rooftops where they watched as Ethan and Two-Face got carted off. The group was about to leave when several figures decided to land behind them. 'Great, the morality crew.' Batman thought to himself as he faced off with the various members of the Justice League that had decided to invade his city. The way they were marching forward it was obvious that they weren't going to ask for permission on whether or not they could do anything here. They were too filled with their righteous attitudes right now to see reason. They were going to do whatever it was that they felt like doing and then say sorry afterwards. If he allowed them to that is.

"That's far enough." Superman ordered the demon hunters his arms crossed as he glared at the group. "Fate told us that you people might slip out before he could deal with everything and that we were to back him up if anything was to happen. He told us that you were all too dangerous to allow too wander around without supervision."

"Back off pal we've just had a long and hard few days." Shadow/Faith growled not in the mood for someone getting in her way right now. She was suffering from the two H's and she doubted that the other would allow her to deal with one of them without her man being around.

"No," Captain Atom said as he glared at the group. "You are going to surrender yourselves right here and now. Once everything is taken care of we'll see what your involvement was."

"And if we don't feel like just going to our rooms like good little kids?" Slayer/Buffy questioned as she held her weapon at the ready in case she should need it against the two powerhouses that were standing before them.

"Then we just might have ourselves a problem. You people have a lot of questions that you need to answer." Superman returned to her meeting the glare unflinchingly. "Until you do that, you're not going to even think of going anywhere."

"We don't answer to you." Angel said glaring at the man before them. "Nothing happened here that has anything to do with you. Why don't you go back and destroy building while saving lives or something." He suggested to the figure in annoyance.

"Yeah, just because we don't do things the way you think we should doesn't mean you have the right to do any of this. We're not capes anyways this was our first time with masks and it will probably be our last one as well." Slayer returned to the alien. The two figures were shoulder to shoulder and against a lesser opponent they would probably be the death of anyone standing against them. This was Superman though and he wasn't as easy to intimidate as most people were.

"I know enough about you and your people to know that you're dangerous to the world." Superman returned to them. "Now surrender before I have to get rough on you. When you add in all the questions Fate says that there are about you then there is something seriously wrong with you. We can't leave you free." Superman declared as he moved toward the pair as he recognized them as the leaders of the group.

"Oh bloody hell no." Spike growled from where he was standing helping the barely conscious Illyria stand. "There is no way that I'm going to be taking orders from some fairy in a cape and tights. At least the people here have costumes that act as armor. Not to mention it has a certain big bad feel to it. Even the bird boy has a certain air about him. You though mate? You ain't got no reason for wearing that sodding getup. I'll take my chances against you rather than having either of you trying to arrest me."

"Fine, I gave you the chance to do this the peaceful way now we do it the hard way." Superman returned as he and Captain Atom rose into the air so that they could start their attack.

"That's enough Superman." Batman growled out in annoyance as he put a communicator away. "I don't know where you got it into your head that you can come into **my** city and start picking fights with people but if you try and take them down then you'll be fighting more than just them."

"Batman you can't be serious. These are dangerous people and you can't let them go free." Superman argued with the man.

"What are you two doing here? Gotham is my city not yours." Batman said, ignoring what the alien had said about his allies. He had learned much about this group, and was not about to let Holier than thou Kal-El try and take them away for doing the right thing.

"Dr. Fate wanted us to help out with this group in case they slipped past him." Captain Atom said nodding toward the assembled demon hunters.

"If you are going to be challenging them then you shall be challenging many other Captain." A new voice said as a portal opened and several new figures stepped out. Wonder Woman, Jason Blood, and Zatana were in front with a few others behind them. "This is a matter for the magical community not the legal one you have no jurisdiction on this matter."

"The laws are not different for people though Wonder Woman." Superman argued with the tall woman.

"These people are some of the ones that have protected the world for a thousand years. They are a part of the Watchers Council you cannot seriously be thinking that there won't be consequences if you attack them." Wonder Woman tried to reason with the pair of men.

"Wow, she's hotter in person." Knight said looking at the woman in appreciation.

"Yeah she is." Wicca agreed as she was also watching the heroine.

"The laws are there for a reason though. Superman argued with Wonder Woman ignoring the conversation that the two were having. "Of all people, I thought you and Batman would understand the most why they need to be taken in before they do something seriously wrong."

"You're in one of those moods then." Batman said as he reached into his belt and pulled out a pair of knucklers he flipped a switch and the metal slid aside to show green gems of some sort. He moved forward leaped and socked the floating man in the chest. Superman cried out in pain as he was forced to the ground. Batman stood over the hero. "Stay down." He ordered.

Zatana sighed before waving her hands "Tropelet." She said waving her hands at the pair. Superman glowed for a moment before he disappeared. The woman then did the same to Captain Atom before turning to the others. "There, that should keep them out of the way for a little bit."

"Where did you send them?" Batman questioned as he returned his knuckler to its hiding place.

"I sent them to Saigon. I figure that they'll be able to cool off on the flight back." The magic user responded.

"That's good, so any word on Dr. Fate last we saw him he was trying to stop a Chaos bomb that had entered the time stream." Nightwing asked her.

Zatana paled at this bit of news. "No, I'm afraid not and there's nothing we can do except hope that it doesn't go off."

Batman let the heroes talk as he turned to Wonder Woman. He nodded his thanks to her and she returned his nod. "Princess Diana, may I present to you the most experienced Slayer." He said formally as he gestured toward the short blonde still dressed in Bat clothes.

Wonder Woman let her eyes raise at this. She knew that the scoobies were connected, but to be connected to the line of Slayers was indeed something. "You are the heir of Sinyea?" She questioned as she regarded the blonde. Her mother had told her the stories of the child warrior who had been an ally to the Amazon nation. In times of need the heir would come back to aide before disappearing until she was needed once again. She could actually understand the heir coming to Batman for aide. They were both beings that operated from the shadows.

"Uh yeah, I guess you could say that." Slayer returned nervously to the tall woman.

"I hope that you can forgive Superman. He means well, but is sometimes overeager at times. He does not understand the heroes that are not bound by the same rules and is often hasty when judging them." Wonder Woman explained to the young woman before her.

Slayer nodded her head. "He was doing what he thought was right so I'm not going to get into it with him over it. If we ever have to meet again it will hopefully be on a whole lot better terms than tonight."

"I hope so sister." A relieved Wonder Woman returned.

"Indeed that is something that we can all hope for." Dr. Fate said as he appeared out of an ankh. "I believe that he was simply worried that the real fight had not begun. I am sure that once he realizes that you fought a Chaos God and won that he will seek you out to apologize. Perhaps when he learns of it though he will treat you with the respect that you deserve."

"Doubtful," Batman returned. "He knows better to start fights in Gotham. He and I will be having words and he better hope I'm content with having knocked him out of the air by the time we meet up." He added still annoyed that Superman was so willing to start a fight with the group.

Dr. Fate nodded his head toward the Dark Knight. "Forgive me for entering as I did Batman. The Chaos energies that I sensed coming from Janus forced me to enter to try and stop him."

"You responded to a threat." Batman said shrugging.

Dr. Fate nodded his thanks before turning to look at the assembled demon hunters. "I must admit I have often been curious about the ones known as Scoobies and Slayerettes." The figure said as he eyed the group. "I look on you and see not the beings of destruction and death I was told of. Instead I see warriors of Chaos that try to bring Order. The best type of champions I could hope to find. You are a truly oddly balanced group. Slayers made from innocent girls and turned into warriors. Vampires with souls and magic users touched by dark magic now trying to make up for their mistakes." At this the magic users flinched as if they had been struck. Fate ignored the motion though as he continued. "Throw in a few regular humans and you are indeed powerful." He turned toward the magic users. "You are doing the work that you should young ones you are balancing the world. In the fight against the Balance fewer have done as much as you for Order. The fact that you often use Chaos to do these things make you all the better to be doing the work that you do." The Mage's eyes seemed to skim over each of them for a moment and they all felt as if their very souls were being bared before him. "You are all where you need to be." He declared to the group. "Chaos to bring Order. Few can manage it yet you do it as simply as breathing and for that I congratulate you. The road of balance is a tricky one."

"You are going to have to tell me where you met these guys." Robin hissed to Nightwing.

The other vigilante smirked back at him. "I somehow doubt that you would believe the entire story that we would have to tell you." Nightwing responded to him. "Let's just say that your girlfriend has a lot of guardian angels. Oh yeah and has a kidnap average worse than the escapee average of Arkham." He added with a chuckle while Robin looked at him in confusion.

"We have other things to do now." Dr. Fate said as he and Jason Blood bowed their heads towards the group. "Continue as you have, you are doing what you need to do." Another ankh appeared and swallowed the various magical heroes until all that was left were the Bat-Clan and the demon hunters.

"Come," Batman said ushering them to follow after him. "I do not think Alfred would be very understanding if I allowed you to disappear back into the night without a meal." He walked to the edge of a building and jumped down as a large black bus stopped in front of it. The others nodded and followed after him. Some were helped by the vampires slayers as the witch could barely levitate herself after all the fighting and power she had used tonight. The group rode on the back of the bus to a small building. "Inside." Batman ordered the group.

The group all slipped in and were assaulted with heavenly smells. "Whoa what is that man?" Gunn questioned as he smelled all sorts of food.

"That would be my work young sir." Alfred said as he stepped out of a small kitchen. "We understand that you won't want to be gone long but we thought some food would make you more agreeable. Then you can all slip off to wherever it is that you plan on haunting."

Angel sighed for a moment before turning and heading back out. "Get what you want guys and head back out I want us gone as quick as possible. Sooner or later Wolfram & Hart will track us down here. I want us to be gone before they find this place. We need to be where they can see us."

Ah he doesn't eat." Gunn explained to the arched brow of the butler.

Alfred nodded in understanding before he resumed his serving duties. "Very well sir. Master Robin might I suggest you call in."

Slayer sighed as she watched the demon hunters all head for the food. There was even some blood that Spike was happily slurping on. The blonde headed back out to find Angel waiting outside for his team. He stood there in silent vigil as he watched for someone coming. She shook her head. "You might as well come out." She said into the night. Batman and Nightwing seemed to appear out of thin air. "Nice of you to join us." Slayer joked at them.

"Well we figured we might as well since you gave us the invitation and all." Nightwing returned to her with a grin. The pair then turned to Batman and Angel who were merely staring at each other. The two dark figures were shadows of each other and it was hard to tell where one began and the other started. "Huh freaky." Nightwing noted as they watched them. "It's just like watching someone in a fun house mirror."

"You said it." Buffy returned to him in agreement. The two were so alike that it was freaky there were enough differences though that it was disturbing.

"What do you plan on doing now?" Batman questioned them. "I don't need any metas in my city." He informed them as he loomed over them.

"Inactive is all I'm going to be as long as Dawn remains safe." Slayer returned to him. "All of my supernatural work is going to be kept out of the city. I'm on vacation no trying to save the world unless I'm called on to do it. That's why I'm on security detail with the kid. It's an important job but I can also pretend that I'm doing something more when it's a fairly easy job. If I run across demons that are attacking and killing or hear about one doing it I'll deal with it and send you a note. If I find out about something that I don't know what is I'll send you a note and let you figure it out. I'm thinking at best I have to fight once a month which is what I was doing before we met. Maybe Hotwings will train with me some so that I can work with him." She mused out loud while looking curiously at Batman who nodded his agreement.

"On the condition that you do your best to stay out of my way and none of your problems affect Gotham." Batman returned to her. "I don't need the trouble your kind attracts."

"Right, besides I really don't have the time to patrol your city with everything I have to do like running an international demon hunting organization. Most of my fighting is going to be somewhere out of city unless something else involving my kind of stuff comes up."

"If you defer yourself to backup the next time we have a situation then we won't have any problems." Batman returned before turning to the vampire. "And what of you, what are your plans? Are we going to have troubles?"

"No," Angel returned to him indifferently. "This is your city mine is LA so unless something supernatural happens that needs me I doubt that I'll be back for a long time on any type of business." The vampire told him.

"Good keep it that way and we won't ever have any troubles." Batman informed him before disappearing back into the shadows.

Nightwing grinned at them in amusement. "He's always had such interesting people skills." He told them with a smile. "Well I got to go inside. I hear Alfred has some of my favorite pancakes." The man turned and walked away as silent as a ninja.

The two demon hunters stood in the darkness of night and heard the oohs and awws coming from where people were sampling Alfred's cooking. The pair merely stared at each other as they tried to ignore each other and have a battle of wills at the same time. The many and various betrayals between the pair had left them like this.

"We're idiots you know that right?" Buffy said being the one to finally break the uneasy silence they had going.

"Really, and how is that?" The vampire asked her curiously.

"Simple really." The girl returned to him. "I thought I was being so clever by hunting down the one boyfriend that would make both you and Spike jealous. Do you have any idea how much work it was for me to find the Immortal and get him on our side? I had to do a lot of work to get him to agree to what he did as it was. Anyways I went out with the jerk a lot more than I wanted and played a few games that I really didn't want to. Do you know why I played those games though?" Buffy questioned him.

"No idea." The intrigued vampire returned. He was curious as to where she was going with all of this.

"To make you jealous enough to come demand answers and so we could pass information back and forth. It was why I had Andrew treat you like that when he came to collect Dana. While he does have uses and is good in some things he's a bit to gullible in others still. The blonde explained to him. "We wanted Wolfram & Hart to think that we wouldn't have anything to do with you so that when you finally did make your move you would have the Slayers all set and ready to do their thing."

Angel paused at this. Could it really be that simple? None of his interactions had been with any of the Scoobies he had known it had all been with Andrew. Misdirection had never been the groups strong point though. Still after spending an entire year being the targets of the First Evil he supposed that one would learn a few tricks of the trade that would allow them to do things in secret. Add in the fact that Angel hadn't seen any of the group until tonight it made a certain kind of sense. "You didn't want to mess up my plan did you?" He questioned her. He was elated at what he was learning. Buffy wasn't dating the Immortal if anything the guy was a supernatural male escort for her.

"Your town your rules." Buffy returned to him. "You had everything all planned out. I wasn't part of the plan. We needed to know the plan though. You know I'm not lying." She informed him as she met his look. "You were able to feel what I was feeling for a while and while I may not be completely happy with you I didn't really give up on you either. I just thought that you could sneak up on me when I wasn't expecting it. You know like you used to. She added with a sad smile as she remembered other times between them.

"So how do we do this so that you can be part of the plan?" Angel asked her curiously.

"Rona." Buffy returned. "When the time is right send Gunn to the shelter. Rona is going to be living at Lily's for a while. When Gunn comes in she'll contact us and we'll send for reinforcements to meet you at your hotel."

Angel nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds like a plan. I've got a couple of changes though. Just in case Gunn doesn't do things like we think he will I'll have my current girlfriend take a flight out of LA. That way, your computer people only have to watch outgoing flights for a name. When her name comes up you'll know that's when you need to get your people to LA as fast as possible." He reasoned with her.

"Girlfriend?" Buffy questioned him curiously. "Did you decide that you were starting to age or something? A few months ago you told me you were willing to wait."

"And then you went and pissed me off by hanging out with the Immortal." Angel returned to her defensively. "I didn't know that he was part of a plan to make me jealous. Besides she'll help prove that the flames with us are gone." He stared into her eyes as intently as he could. "The only person that can give me my moment is you never forget that."

Buffy glared at him in annoyance but conceded that he had a point. "It's not fair that you can look cute while defending yourself." She complained a slight blush on her face. "And for you information there are no flames we are flameless in fact we're ah cold yeah cold remember which is why were dating other people." She stuttered out in her defense.

Angel smirked at her in return. "Just remember, you're still my girl." Angel returned to her before he disappeared into the shadows as the rest of the team showed up.

"Yeah," Buffy said with a soft smile on her face. "I will."

* * *

"So you mean all of the grunting and arguing we've been dealing with has been nothing more than a show?" Spike said in shock as he tried to figure this one out.

"Yes Spike that's what we're saying." Buffy returned to him.

"Slayer, do you have any idea what we've had to deal with while the two of you have been playing your secret agent games?" Spike continued to complain.

"Will someone get him some alcohol and cigarettes? Buffy questioned the crowd knowing that was the only way to get the vampire to quit complaining for a while. Soon a bottle whiskey and a pack of cigarettes were pressed into the souled vampires hands by a grinning Dawn who gave the vampire a hug. "This does not make up for everything Slayer!" Spike hollered at the back of the blonde. The vampire then grinned as he took a deep pull from his bottle and then slung an arm over Dawn. "Come on Nibblet, you can tell old Spike about everything that you've been doing lately." The vampire offered to the girl with a grin.

Dawn smiled at him sheepishly. "Sorry, I really wish I could but I have a date with Robin now and since we're in LA we figured we'd find a theme park to go to." The girl slipped out of his arm and into the arms of the waiting figure in red and green. "Don't wait up!" She said waving to him.

Spike shook his head as he watched the two Summers girls leave in opposite directions with their boys. What was it about Summers women and guys? Why did they always have to pick the brooding ones? The vampire wondered. He also wondered how badly the Slayer and the others would hurt him if he were to insure that the boy treated her right. Sure the boy was a part of the spandex brigade and faced all sorts of monster all the time but it was his job to make sure that the boy was worthy of the Nibblit. Not like he could count on any of the others to do the job correctly.

"Oh Spikey Bear." A voice called out, breaking the vampire out of his musings.

Spike grimaced and considered acting as chaperone for the Nibblet till he saw the Bird boy swing her onto a motorcycle and they roared off. Yep he was the one that was stuck this time it seemed he thought as he turned to deal with the blonde idiot that seemed to think that they might have something still. You'd think that she would understand it but sleep with a bird a few times and she kept coming back for more.

* * *

Well I finally finished this one. I think this is actually my first story only took me a few years and Firewolfe begging to finish it. Seems like I'm working on closing a lot of stories up this holiday. Have a good holiday and what not.  
PS for all those that say that Buffy wouldn't have taken the my town my rules I ask them remember the episode where Angel pulled the same speech on Buffy and she backed off pretty quickly after that. So I think that the same would hold for them obeying the Batman.


End file.
